SIR JOSEPH HOOKER.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1310, 13 December 1911, Page 7

SIR JOSEPH HOOKER.

FAMOUS BOTANIST DEAD. By TelesraDh-Prcss Association-Copyrlehl London, December 11. The death is announced of Sir Joseph Hooker, G.C.5.1., F.R.S., etc., the famous botanist and late Director of Ivew Gardens.

The late Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker was born in 1817 at Halesworth, Suffolk. Ho was a sou of Sir W. J. Hooker, and, like his father, acquired great fume as a botanist. He was educated at Glasgow University, aud almost immediately alter taking his M.D. degree there in 183!) joined Sir ilnmes Ross's Antarctic expedition, receiving a, commisson as assstant-surgeon on the Erobus. After returning from the Antarctic, Dr. Hooker, as ho then was, visited New Zealand and Tasmania, and iho botanical results of the three years thus spent were tho Flora Antarctica, the Flora Zelandiae, and the Flora lasmanica. Dr. Hooter made tho first systematic examination of the botany of New Zealand, and his "Handbook of the New coland Flora" is well known to all students of botany.

The next expedition after the return from the Pacific was to the northern frontiers of India, and in this case the I expenses were again partly defrayed by I'ho Imperial Government. The party had an adventurous time, and Hooker and his friend, Dr. Campbell, wero detained in prison for some tune by the Rajah of Sikkim. Among other journeys undertaken by Hooker were those to. Palestine (18G0), Morocco (1S71), and the United States (1877), all of which yielded valuable scientific information. In the midst of all this travelling in foreign countries, says the writer of a recent biographical note, Hooker quickly built up for himself a high scientific "reputation at Home. In 1855 he was appointed as-sistant-director of Kew Gardens, and in 1865 ho succeeded his father as full director, holding the post for twenty years. At the early age of thirty he was elected a Fellow of the I?oyal Society, and in 1873 he was chosen its president; ho received throe of its medals—a Eoval in 1831, the Copley in 1887, and the Darwin in 1892. He acted as president of the British Association at its Norwich meeting of 1868, when his address was remarkable for-its championship of Darwinian theories. Of Darwin, indeed, he was an earlv friend and supporter; it was ho who, with Lyeli, first induced Darwin to make his views public, and tho author of "The Origin of Species" has recorded his indebtedness to Hooker's wide knowledge and balanced judpnent. Sir Joseph Hooker was the author of numerous scientific papers and •monographs, and his larger books include a standard "Students' Flora of the British Isles," and a monumental work, the "German Plantarum," based on the collections at Kew, in which ho had the assistance of Bentham. On tho publication of the last part of his "Flora of British India" in 1897. he was created &.5.C.1., having been created a knightcommander of the order twenty years before. Apart from his beloved flowers, perhaps the veteran botanist's chief delight was centred in his fino collection of Medgwood ware, and ho also took great interest in the study of history and geography. He was twice married, and latterly lived quietly near Sunningdale, in Berkshire. Sir Joseph was one of tho last survivors of tho one© famous X Club, which numbered among its original members such men as Huxley and Herbert Spencer,