75-497: Medeoleae Benth. The Medeoloideae (syn. Medeoleae) are a subfamily of monocotyledon perennial , herbaceous mainly bulbous flowering plants in the lily family , Liliaceae . The Medeoleae are characterised by rhizomatous stems, inconspicuous flowers, the formation of berries that are animal dispersed and broad reticulate-veined leaves. In the most recent taxonomy of the AP Web system, this subfamily has been downgraded to
150-649: A prairie flora derived from the eastward; 2. a so-called desert and saline flora derived from the west; 3. a sub-alpine; 4. an alpine flora , the two latter of widely different origin, and in one sense proper to the Rocky Mountain ranges. His overview of North American flora contained these elements: While on the Erebus , Hooker had read proofs of Charles Darwin 's Voyage of the Beagle provided by Charles Lyell and had been very impressed by Darwin's skill as
225-408: A tribe , Medeoleae , within the subfamily Lilioideae . The taxon includes two genera; This Liliales article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . George Bentham George Bentham CMG FRS FLS (22 September 1800 – 10 September 1884) was an English botanist , described by the weed botanist Duane Isely as "the premier systematic botanist of
300-595: A Tour in Marocco and The Great Atlas (1878). This was undertaken with his friend Asa Gray , the leading American botanist of the day. They wished to investigate the connection between the floras of eastern United States and those of eastern continental Asia and Japan; and the line of demarcation between Arctic floras of America and Greenland . As probable causes they considered the Glacial periods and an earlier land connection with an Arctic continent. "A difficult question
375-492: A chair at Glasgow University which became vacant on Balfour's appointment. Instead, he took a position as botanist to the Geological Survey of Great Britain in 1846. He began work on palaeobotany , searching for fossil plants in the coal-beds of Wales , eventually discovering the first coal ball in 1855. He became engaged to Frances Henslow, daughter of Charles Darwin 's botany tutor John Stevens Henslow , but he
450-851: A collision between the Erebus and Terror, they sailed to the Falkland Islands , to Tierra del Fuego , back to the Falklands and onward to their third sortie into the Antarctic. When Hooker arrived on the Falkland Islands with the expedition of Ross, he developed a close friendship with Richard Clement Moody , the Governor of the Falkland Islands. Moody granted Hooker full use of his personal library, which Hooker described as 'excellent', and Hooker described Moody as 'a very active and intelligent young man, most anxious to improve
525-636: A naturalist. They had met once, before the Antarctic voyage embarked. After Hooker's return to England, he was approached by Darwin who invited him to classify the plants that Darwin had collected in South America and the Galápagos Islands . Hooker agreed and the pair began a lifelong friendship. On 11 January 1844 Darwin mentioned to Hooker his early ideas on the transmutation of species and natural selection , and Hooker showed interest. In 1847 he agreed to read Darwin's "Essay" explaining
600-611: A scheme for the preparation of a series of Floras or descriptions in the English language of the indigenous plants of British colonies and possessions. Bentham began with the Flora Hongkongensis in 1861, which was the first comprehensive work on any part of the little-known flora of China and Hong Kong, including Hong Kong croton . This was followed by the Flora Australiensis , in seven volumes (1863–1878),
675-467: A short and apparently minor illness, Hooker died in his sleep at home, the Camp, Sunningdale , Berkshire. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey offered a grave near Darwin's in the nave but insisted that Hooker be cremated before. His widow, Hyacinth, declined the proposal and eventually Hooker's body was buried, as he wished to be, alongside his father in the churchyard of St Anne's Church, Kew ,
750-403: A short distance from Kew Gardens . His memorial tablet in the church, with a motif of five plants, was designed by Matilda Smith. Hooker's first expedition, led by James Clark Ross , consisted of two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror ; it was the last major voyage of exploration made entirely under sail. Hooker was the youngest of the 128-man crew. He sailed on the Erebus and
825-561: A short residence in Sweden while still a child. The family made a long tour through France, staying two years at Montauban , where Bentham studied Hebrew and mathematics in the Protestant Theological School. They eventually settled near Montpellier where Sir Samuel bought a large estate. While studying at Angoulême , Bentham came across a copy of A. P. de Candolle 's Flore française , and became interested in
SECTION 10
#1732779715982900-518: A standard Students Flora of the British Isles and a monumental work, the Genera plantarum (1860–83), based on the collections at Kew, in which he had the assistance of George Bentham . His collaboration with George Bentham was especially important. Bentham, an amateur botanist who worked at Kew for many years, was perhaps the leading botanical systematist of the 19th century. The Handbook of
975-552: A threat to Owen's plans for a museum in South Kensington to house the natural history collections. Hooker cited mismanagement at the British Museum as a justification. After Joseph had succeeded his father as Director, in 1865, the independence of Kew was seriously threatened by the machinations of a member of parliament, Acton Smee Ayrton , whose appointment as First Commissioner of Works by Gladstone in 1869
1050-479: Is no doubt that rivalry resulted between the British Museum, where there was the very important Herbarium of the Department of Botany, and Kew. The rivalry at times became extremely personal, especially between Joseph Hooker and Owen. ... At the root was Owen's feeling that Kew should be subordinate to the British Museum (and to Owen) and should not be allowed to develop as an independent scientific institution with
1125-605: The Flora Antarctica (1844–47). In the Flora he wrote about islands and their role in plant geography : the work made Hooker's reputation as a systemist and plant geographer. His works on the voyage were completed with Flora Novae-Zelandiae (1851–53) and Flora Tasmaniae (1853–59). This trip was taken in the autumn of 1860, with Daniel Hanbury . They visited and collected in Syria and Palestine ; no full-length report
1200-563: The Horticultural Society of London from 1829 to 1840. In 1832, he inherited the property of his uncle, Jeremy Bentham . Having inherited his father's estate the previous year, he was now sufficiently well off to do whatever he wanted, which was botany , jurisprudence and logic . Bentham married Sarah Jones (1798–1881), daughter of Sir Harford Jones Brydges , on 11 April 1833; they did not have children. Bentham died at his London home on 10 September 1884, aged 83. He
1275-692: The Linnean Society of London from 1861 to 1874. He was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1866. He was appointed CMG (Companion of St Michael & St George) in 1878. His foreign awards included the Clarke Medal of the Royal Society of New South Wales in 1879. Bentham's first publication was his Catalogue des plantes indigènes des Pyrénées et du Bas Languedoc (Paris 1826),
1350-544: The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew . At the same time, he contemplated the abandonment of botanical work. However, he yielded to the persuasion of Sir William Jackson Hooker , John Lindley and other scientific friends. In 1855 he took up his residence in London, and worked at Kew for five days a week, with a brief summer holiday, from this time onwards until the end of his life. In 1857, the government sanctioned
1425-763: The Wasatch Range . A journey of 29 hours took them to Reno and Carson City , then Silver City and ten days by wagon across the Sierra Nevada . Thus they came to the Yosemite and Calaveras Grove , and ended up in San Francisco. Hooker was back in Kew with 1,000 dried specimens by October. His comments on his encounters include the following: His views on the flora of Colorado and Utah : There are two temperate, and two cold or mountain floras, viz: 1.
1500-455: The law of real property . But the most remarkable production of this period was the Outline of a New System of Logic: With a Critical Examination of Dr. Whately's Elements of Logic (1827). In this the principle of the quantification of the predicate was first explicitly stated. This Stanley Jevons declared to be undoubtedly the most fruitful discovery made in abstract logical science since
1575-692: The Admiralty. He would be the first European to collect plants in the Himalaya, but abandoned the projected visit to Labuan . He received free passage on HMS Sidon , to the Nile and then travelled overland to Suez where he boarded a ship to India. He arrived in Calcutta on 12 January 1848, leaving on 28th to begin his travels with a geological survey party under 'Mr Williams' , who he left on 3 March to continue travelling by elephant to Mirzapur , up
SECTION 20
#17327797159821650-568: The Ayrton Episode held at Kew. Ayrton behaved in an extraordinary way, interfering in matters and approaching Hooker's colleagues behind his back, apparently with the aim of getting Hooker to resign, when the expenditure on Kew could be curtailed and diverted. Ayrton actually took staff appointments out of Hooker's hands. He seemed not to value the scientific work, and to believe Kew should be just an amusement park. Hooker wrote: My life has become utterly detestable and I do long to throw up
1725-610: The British flora , begun by Bentham and completed by Hooker, was the standard text for a hundred years. It was always known as 'Bentham & Hooker'. In 1904, at the age of 87, Hooker published A sketch of the Vegetation of the Indian Empire . He continued the compilation of his father Sir William Jackson Hooker 's project, Icones Plantarum (Illustrations of Plants), producing volumes eleven through nineteen, with most of
1800-671: The Cape they entered the Southern Ocean. Their first stop was the Crozet Islands where they set down on Possession Island to deliver coffee to sealers. They departed for the Kerguelen Islands where they would spend several days. Hooker identified 18 flowering plants, 35 mosses and liverworts , 25 lichens and 51 algae, including some that were not described by surgeon William Anderson when James Cook had visited
1875-553: The Directorship. What can be more humiliating than two years of wrangling with such a creature! Finally, Hooker asked to be put in communication with Gladstone's private secretary, Algernon West . A statement was drawn up over the signatures of Darwin , Lyell , Huxley , Tyndall , Bentham and others. It was laid before Parliament by John Lubbock , and additional papers laid before the House of Lords. Lord Derby called for all
1950-523: The Falkland Islands . Hooker described the library as 'excellent', and developed a close friendship with Moody. In 1851, he married Frances Harriet Henslow (1825–1874), daughter of Darwin's mentor, John Stevens Henslow . They had three daughters and four sons: Frances Harriet Henslow's contribution to his work included translating French botanical texts which Hooker edited. After his first wife's death in 1874, in 1876 he married Lady Hyacinth Jardine (1842–1921), daughter of William Samuel Symonds and
2025-522: The Ganges by boat to Siliguri and overland by pony to Darjeeling , arriving on 16 April 1848. Hooker's expedition was based in Darjeeling where he stayed with naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson . Through Hodgson he met British East India Company representative Archibald Campbell who negotiated Hooker's admission to Sikkim , which was finally approved in 1849 (He was later briefly taken prisoner by
2100-548: The Hookers, and suggested (amongst much else) that they had mismanaged the care of their trees, and that their systematic approach to botany was nothing more than "attaching barbarous binomials to foreign weeds". The discovery of this report no doubt helped to sway opinion in favour of Hooker and Kew (there was debate in the press as well as Parliament). Hooker replied to the Owen report in a point by point factual manner, and his reply
2175-582: The India Office, and lived to age 89. However, his third son, Brian, was a "great worry" to him. He qualified as a geologist and mining engineer at the Royal School of Mines but unable to get a job in Britain emigrated to Australia, where he married. He resigned a Queensland lectureship to invest (with his brother Willy) in an impressively named but cash-strapped gold-mining company which collapsed,
2250-739: The Khasi Hills and established a headquarters for their studies in Churra, where they stayed until 9 December, when they began their trip back to England. With Thomson he distributed the exsiccata -like series Herbarium Indiae orientalis . Hooker's survey of hitherto unexplored regions, the Himalayan Journals , dedicated to Charles Darwin , was published by the Calcutta Trigonometrical Survey Office in 1854, abbreviated again in 1855 and later by
2325-593: The Minerva Library of Famous Books published by Ward, Lock, Bowden & Co. in 1891. When Hooker returned to England his father, who had been appointed director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in 1841, was now a prominent man of science. William Hooker, through his connections, secured an Admiralty grant of £1000 to defray the cost of plates for his son's Botany of the Antarctic Voyages , and an annual stipend of £200 for Joseph while he worked on
Medeoloideae - Misplaced Pages Continue
2400-675: The Queensland Minerals Exploration Company. Joseph was appalled; Brian could not support his wife and children or find employment. In 1891, Hector sent a pessimistic report on a proposed tin mine on Stewart Island , and saw Brian in 1892 and 1893, after he left his family in Australia. Hector ceased to be involved with mining in New Zealand under the new Liberal government. Brian returned to his family in Australia in 1894. On 10 December 1911, after
2475-812: The Raja of Sikkim). Meanwhile, Hooker wrote to Darwin relaying to him the habits of animals in India, and collected plants in Bengal . He explored with local resident Charles Barnes, then travelled along the Great Runjeet river to its junction with the Teesta River and Tonglu mountain in the Singalila range on the border with Nepal . Hooker and a sizeable party of local assistants departed for eastern Nepal on 27 October 1848. They travelled to Zongri, west over
2550-672: The Survey vaults in Keyworth in Nottinghamshire, and they shed light on the international breadth of English scientific research in the first half of the nineteenth century. On 11 November 1847 Hooker left England for his three-year-long Himalayan expedition. This was just 10 days after being granted two and a half years' leave from the Geological Survey to study fossil plants in India and Borneo on behalf of Kew and
2625-657: The United States all produced valuable information and specimens for Kew. He started the series Flora Indica in 1855, together with Thomas Thompson . Their botanical observations and the publication of the Rhododendrons of Sikkim–Himalaya (1849–51), formed the basis of elaborate works on the rhododendrons of the Sikkim Himalaya and on the flora of India. His works were illustrated with lithographs by Walter Hood Fitch . His greatest botanical work
2700-704: The University of Glasgow graduating with an MD in 1839. His degree qualified him for employment in the Naval Medical Service. He joined the polar explorer Captain James Clark Ross 's Antarctic expedition to the South Magnetic Pole after receiving a commission as Assistant-Surgeon on HMS Erebus . On this expedition, Hooker was granted full access to the private library of Richard Clement Moody , then Governor of
2775-518: The advantage of a great botanic garden. The relationship between the two men continued to deteriorate after Hooker became a supporter of Darwin's views and a member of the X-Club , who set out to get their way with the Royal Society. In 1868 Hooker had proposed that the whole of the huge herbarium collection of Joseph Banks should be moved from the British Museum to Kew, a reasonable idea, but
2850-425: The analytical tables for identifying plants. He immediately tested them on the first plant he saw. The result was successful and he applied it to every plant he came across. In London in 1823, he met English botanists. His uncle pushed him to study law at Lincoln's Inn . He was called to the bar and in 1832 held his first and only legal brief . However, his interest in botany never flagged and he became secretary of
2925-614: The banker Dawson Turner and sister-in-law of Francis Palgrave , and the famous botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker , Regius Professor of Botany . From the age of seven, Hooker attended his father's lectures at the University of Glasgow , taking an early interest in plant distribution and the voyages of explorers like Captain James Cook . He was educated at the Glasgow High School and went on to study medicine at
3000-601: The botanical descriptions for The Botany of the Voyage of H.M.S. Sulphur . The editor, Richard Brinsley Hinds , had been surgeon on HMS Sulphur 1835-41 while she explored the Pacific coast of the Americas . In 1854 he found the maintenance of a herbarium and library too expensive. He, therefore, offered them to the government on the understanding that they should form the foundation of such necessary aids to research in
3075-579: The colony and gain every information [ sic ] respecting its products'. Subsequently, the Ross expedition made a landing at Cockburn Island off the Antarctic Peninsula , and after leaving the Antarctic, stopped at the Cape, St Helena and Ascension Island . The ships arrived back in England on 4 September 1843; the voyage had been a success for Ross as it was the first to confirm
Medeoloideae - Misplaced Pages Continue
3150-457: The correspondence on the matter. The Treasury supported Hooker and criticised Ayrton's behaviour. One extraordinary fact emerged. There had been an official report on Kew, which had not previously been seen in public, which Ayrton had caused to be written by Richard Owen. Hooker had not seen the report, and so had not been given right of reply. Nonetheless, the report was amongst the papers laid before Parliament, and it contained an attack on both
3225-594: The existence of the southern continent and chart much of its coastline. In 1845, Hooker applied for the Chair of Botany at the University of Edinburgh . This position included duties at the Royal Botanic Gardens of Scotland , and so the appointment was influenced by local politicians. An unusually protracted struggle ensued, resulting in the election of the locally born and bred botanist, John Hutton Balfour . The Darwin correspondence , now public, makes clear Darwin's sense of shock at this unexpected outcome. Hooker declined
3300-414: The first flora of any large continental area that had ever been finished. His greatest work was the Genera Plantarum , begun in 1862, and concluded in 1883 in collaboration with Joseph Dalton Hooker . His most famous work, however, was the Handbook of the British flora , begun in 1853 and first published in 1858. This was used by students for over a century, running into many editions. After his death, it
3375-412: The first of the three X-Clubbers in succession to become President of the Royal Society . In 1862, he was elected a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences . By his travels and his publications, Hooker built up a high scientific reputation at home. In 1855 he was appointed Assistant-Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew , and in 1865 he succeeded his father as full Director, holding
3450-450: The flora. Hooker's flora was also to include that collected on the voyages of Cook and Menzies held by the British Museum and collections made on the Beagle . The floras were illustrated by Walter Hood Fitch (trained in botanical illustration by William Hooker), who would go on to become the most prolific Victorian botanical artist . Hooker's collections from the Antarctic voyage were described eventually in one of two volumes published as
3525-440: The illustrations being prepared for him by Matilda Smith . The Herbarium at Kew was founded in 1853, and quickly grew in size and importance. At the time, Richard Owen was the Superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum , reporting only to the Head of the British Museum. Hooker, appointed in 1855 as Assistant Director of Kew, was the man most responsible for bringing foreign specimens to Kew. There
3600-475: The islands in 1772. The expedition spent some time in Hobart , Van Diemen's Land , and then moved on to the Auckland Islands and Campbell Island , and onward to Antarctica to locate the South Magnetic Pole. After spending 5 months in the Antarctic they returned to resupply in Hobart, then went on to Sydney, and the Bay of Islands in New Zealand from 18 August to 23 November 1841. They left New Zealand to return to Antarctica. After spending 138 days at sea, and
3675-399: The king of Sikkim. However, they were released without any bloodshed and Hooker returned to Darjeeling, where he spent January and February 1850 writing his journals, replacing specimens lost during his detention and planning a journey for his last year in India. According to an 1887 journal written by Indian administrator Richard Temple , many of the rhododendrons found in English gardens of
3750-422: The new line of thought was complete, and included a change from typology in taxonomy to an appreciation that "We cannot form an idea of a species from a single individual, nor of a genus from a single one of its species. We can no more set up a typical species than a typical individual." Bentham was awarded the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1859 and elected a Fellow in 1862. He served as president of
3825-521: The nineteenth century". Born into a distinguished family, he initially studied law, but had a fascination with botany from an early age, which he soon pursued, becoming president of the Linnaean Society in 1861, and a fellow of the Royal Society in 1862. He was the author of a number of important botanical works, particularly flora. He is best known for his taxonomic classification of plants in collaboration with Joseph Dalton Hooker , his Genera Plantarum (1862–1883). He died in London in 1884. Bentham
SECTION 50
#17327797159823900-406: The one who formally presented this material to the Linnean Society meeting in 1858. In 1859 the author of The Origin of Species recorded his indebtedness to Hooker's wide knowledge and balanced judgment. In December 1859, Hooker published the Introductory Essay to the Flora Tasmaniae , the final part of the Botany of the Antarctic Voyage. It was in this essay (which appeared just one month after
3975-490: The post for twenty years. Under the directorship of father and son Hooker, the Royal Botanic gardens of Kew rose to world renown. At the age of thirty, Hooker was elected a fellow of the Royal Society , and in 1873 he was chosen its president (till 1877). He received three of its medals: the Royal Medal in 1854, the Copley in 1887 and the Darwin Medal in 1892. He continued to intersperse work at Kew with foreign exploration and collecting. His journeys to Palestine, Morocco and
4050-510: The publication of Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species ), that Hooker announced his support for the theory of evolution by natural selection, thus becoming the first recognised man of science to publicly back Darwin. At the historic debate on evolution held at the Oxford University Museum on 30 June 1860, Bishop Samuel Wilberforce , Benjamin Brodie and Robert FitzRoy spoke against Darwin's theory, and Hooker and Thomas Henry Huxley defended it. According to Hooker's own account, it
4125-429: The result of a careful exploration of the Pyrenees in company with G. A. Walker Arnott (1799–1868), afterwards professor of botany in the University of Glasgow . In the catalogue Bentham adopted the principle from which he never deviated, of citing nothing at second-hand. This was followed by articles on various legal subjects: on codification , in which he disagreed with his uncle, on the laws affecting larceny and on
4200-418: The spurs of Kangchenjunga , and north west along Nepal's passes into Tibet . In April 1849 he planned a longer expedition into Sikkim. Leaving on 3 May, he travelled north west up the Lachen Valley to the Kongra Lama Pass and then to the Lachoong Pass . Campbell and Hooker were imprisoned by the Dewan of Sikkim as they travelled towards the Cho La in Tibet. A British team was sent to negotiate with
4275-474: The theory, and responded with notes giving Darwin calm critical feedback. Their correspondence continued throughout the development of Darwin's theory and in 1858 Darwin wrote that Hooker was "the one living soul from whom I have constantly received sympathy". Freeman 1978 wrote "Hooker was Charles Darwin's greatest friend and confidant". Certainly they had extensive correspondence, and they also met face-to-face (Hooker visiting Darwin). Hooker and Lyell were
4350-489: The time of Aristotle . Before sixty copies had been sold the publisher became bankrupt and the stock went for wastepaper. The book passed into oblivion, and it was not until 1873 that Bentham's claims to priority were finally vindicated against those of Sir William Hamilton by Herbert Spencer . In 1836 he published his Labiatarum genera et species . In preparing this work he visited, between 1830 and 1834, every European herbarium, several more than once. The following winter
4425-426: The time were grown from seeds collected by Hooker in Sikkim. Reluctant to return to Sikkim, and unenthusiastic about travelling in Bhutan , he chose to make his last Himalayan expedition to Sylhet and the Khasi Hills in Assam. He was accompanied by Thomas Thomson , a fellow student from Glasgow University. They left Darjeeling on 1 May 1850, then sailed to the Bay of Bengal and travelled overland by elephant to
4500-399: The two people Darwin consulted (by letter) when Alfred Russel Wallace 's famous letter arrived at Down House , enclosing his paper on natural selection. Hooker was instrumental in creating the device whereby the Wallace paper was accompanied by Darwin's notes and his letter to Asa Gray (showing his prior realisation of natural selection) in a presentation to the Linnean Society . Hooker was
4575-414: The widow of Sir William Jardine . They had two sons: Lady Hooker was elected a Fellow of the RSPB in 1905. Hooker regularly corresponded with the chief government scientist in New Zealand, Sir James Hector . He sent his son Willy (aged 15) to stay in New Zealand with the recently married Hector in 1869, Willy was sickly and coughing up blood, and a warmer climate was recommended. Though well-behaved he
SECTION 60
#17327797159824650-437: Was a British botanist and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin 's closest friend. For 20 years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew , succeeding his father, William Jackson Hooker , and was awarded the highest honours of British science. Hooker was born in Halesworth , Suffolk, England. He was the second son of Maria Sarah Turner, eldest daughter of
4725-554: Was assistant to Robert McCormick , who in addition to being the ship's Surgeon was instructed to collect zoological and geological specimens. The ships sailed on 30 September 1839. Before journeying to Antarctica they visited Madeira , Tenerife , Santiago and Quail Island in the Cape Verde archipelago, St Paul Rocks , Trindade east of Brazil, St Helena , and the Cape of Good Hope . Hooker made plant collections at each location and while travelling drew these and specimens of algae and sea life pulled aboard using tow nets. From
4800-412: Was born in Stoke, Plymouth , on 22 September 1800. His father, Sir Samuel Bentham , a naval architect , was the only brother of Jeremy Bentham to survive into adulthood. His mother, Mary Sophia Bentham , was a botanist and author. Bentham had no formal education but had a remarkable linguistic aptitude. By the age of seven, he could speak French, German and Russian, and he learned Swedish during
4875-467: Was edited by Hooker, and was known simply as Bentham & Hooker . He is most famous for his extensive and excellent classification of plants, especially angiosperms, along with Hooker, forming the " Bentham & Hooker system ", which was published in three volumes as Genera Plantarum between 1862 and 1883. The following plants have been named in his honour: Joseph Dalton Hooker Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911)
4950-423: Was greeted in The Times with the prophecy that it would prove "another instance of Mr. Ayrton's unfortunate tendency to carry out what he thinks right in as unpleasant a manner as possible". This was relevant because Kew was funded by the Board of Works, and the Director of Kew reported to the First Commissioner. The conflict between the two men lasted from 1870 to 1872, and there is a voluminous correspondence on
5025-402: Was he and not Huxley who delivered the most effective reply to Wilberforce's arguments. Hooker acted as president of the British Association at its Norwich meeting of 1868, when his address was remarkable for its championship of Darwinian theories. He was a close friend of Thomas Henry Huxley , a member of the X-Club (which dominated the Royal Society in the 1870s and early 1880s), and
5100-414: Was indolent. Hector sent him on a cruise on a Government steamer the Sturt with a son (also 15) of Colonel Haultain the Defence minister. Mrs Hector treated him like a younger brother. After eight months and in better health Hector sent him home to England, saying he had greatly improved. His father was grateful, and surprised when Willy passed the civil service examination. He got an administrative job in
5175-417: Was interred in Brompton Cemetery . Bentham's life spanned the Darwinian revolution, and his young colleague Joseph Dalton Hooker was Darwin 's closest friend and one of the first to accept Darwin's ideas. Until then, Bentham unquestioningly believed that species were fixed. In 1874 he wrote that "Fifteen years have sufficed to establish a theory of evolution by natural selection ". Bentham's conversion to
5250-416: Was keen to continue to travel and gain more experience in the field. He wanted to travel to India and the Himalayas . In 1847 his father nominated him to travel to India and collect plants for Kew . In 2011, a collection of glass plate slides of paleontological fossils, some prepared by Darwin, William Nicol and others, which had been lost following Hooker's brief tenure with the Survey, were rediscovered in
5325-444: Was passed in Vienna , where he produced his Commentationes de Leguminosarum generibus , published in the annals of the Vienna Museum. In 1842 he moved to Pontrilas in Herefordshire. His chief occupation for the next few years was his contributions to the Prodromus Systematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis , which was being carried on by his friend, A. P. de Candolle . In all these dealt with some 4,730 species. In 1844, he provided
5400-723: Was placed with the other papers on the case. When Ayrton was questioned about it in the debate led by Lubbock, he replied that "Hooker was too low an official to raise questions of matter with a Minister of the Crown". The outcome was not a vote in the Commons, but a kind of truce until, in August 1874, Gladstone transferred Ayrton from the Board of Works to the office of Judge Advocate-General , just before his government fell. Ayrton failed to get re-elected to Parliament. From that moment to this,
5475-409: Was published, but a number of papers were written. Hooker recognised three phytogeographical divisions: Western Syria and Palestine; Eastern Syria and Palestine; Middle and Upper mountain regions of Syria. Hooker visited Morocco from April to June 1871, in the company of John Ball , George Maw and a young gardener from Kew, called Crump. They published an account of their travels entitled Journal of
5550-586: Was the Flora of British India , published in seven volumes starting in 1872. On the publication of the last part in 1897, he was promoted Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India (being made a Knight Commander of that Order in 1877). Ten years later, on attaining the age of ninety in 1907, he was awarded the Order of Merit . He was the author of numerous scientific papers and monographs, and his larger books included, in addition to those already mentioned,
5625-689: Was why in the great mountain chains of the Western United States there appeared to be only a few botanical enclaves of plants of eastern-Asiatic afinities among plants of Mexican and more southern types." Hooker visited a number of cities and botanical institutions before moving west and climbing to 9,000 ft to camp at La Veta . From Fort Garland they climbed the Sierra Blanca at 14,500 ft. After returning to La Veta, they went beyond Colorado Springs to Pike's Peak . Next to Denver and Salt Lake City for an excursion into
#981018