J. D. Hooker
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (30 June 1817 – 10 December 1911) was a British
botanist Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek wo ...
and explorer in the 19th century. He was a founder of geographical botany and Charles Darwin's closest friend. For twenty years he served as director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, succeeding his father,
William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...
, and was awarded the highest honours of British science.


Biography


Early years

Hooker was born in Halesworth, Suffolk, England. He was the second son of the famous botanist Sir
William Jackson Hooker Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...
, Regius Professor of Botany, and Maria Sarah Turner, eldest daughter of the banker Dawson Turner and sister-in-law of Francis Palgrave. From age seven, Hooker attended his father's lectures at Glasgow University, taking an early interest in plant distribution and the voyages of explorers like Captain
James Cook James Cook (7 November 1728 Old Style date: 27 October – 14 February 1779) was a British explorer, navigator, cartographer, and captain in the British Royal Navy, famous for his three voyages between 1768 and 1779 in the Pacific Ocean an ...
. He was educated at the Glasgow High School and went on to study medicine at Glasgow University, graduating M.D. in 1839. This degree qualified him for employment in the Naval Medical Service: he joined the renowned polar explorer Captain James Clark Ross's
Antarctic The Antarctic ( or , American English also or ; commonly ) is a polar region around Earth's South Pole, opposite the Arctic region around the North Pole. The Antarctic comprises the continent of Antarctica, the Kerguelen Plateau and other ...
expedition to the South Magnetic Pole after receiving a commission as Assistant-Surgeon on . On this expedition, Hooker was granted full access to the private library of Richard Clement Moody, then Governor of the Falkland Islands: Hooker described the library as 'excellent', and developed a close friendship with Moody.


Marriages and children

In 1851 he married
Frances Harriet Henslow Frances Harriet Hooker (30 April 1825 – 13 November 1874) was an English botanist. In 1872, Hooker translated ''A General System of Botany, Descriptive and Analytical'' by Emmanuel Le Maout and Joseph Decaisne into English from the origin ...
(1825–1874), daughter of Darwin's mentor, John Stevens Henslow. They had four sons and three daughters: * William Henslow Hooker (1853–1942) * Harriet Anne Hooker (1854–1945) married William Turner Thiselton-Dyer * Charles Paget Hooker (1855–1933) * Maria Elizabeth Hooker (1857–1863) died aged 6. * Brian Harvey Hodgson Hooker (1860–1932) *
Reginald Hawthorn Hooker Reginald Hawthorn Hooker (12 January 1867 – 2 June 1944) English civil servant, statistician and meteorologist. Hooker was a pioneer in the application of correlation analysis to economics and agricultural meteorology. Biography Reginald ...
(1867–1944) statistician * Grace Ellen Hooker (1868–1955) 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 William Samuel Symonds (13 December 181815 September 1887) was an English cleric, geologist and author. Life He was born in Hereford, and educated at Cheltenham College and Christ's College, Cambridge, where he graduated B.A. in 1842. Having ta ...
and the widow of Sir William Jardine. They had two sons: * Joseph Symonds Hooker (1877–1940) * Richard Symonds Hooker (1885–1950). Lady Hooker was elected a Fellow of the
RSPB The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) is a Charitable_organization#United_Kingdom, charitable organisation registered in Charity Commission for England and Wales, England and Wales and in Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, ...
in 1905.


Sons Willy and Brian

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 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 the India Office, and lived to 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, 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 Stewart Island ( mi, Rakiura, ' glowing skies', officially Stewart Island / Rakiura) is New Zealand's third-largest island, located south of the South Island, across the Foveaux Strait. It is a roughly triangular island with a total land ar ...
, 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.


Death and burial

Joseph Hooker died in his sleep at midnight at home, the Camp, Sunningdale in Berkshire, on 10 December 1911 after a short and apparently minor illness. The Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey offered a grave near Darwin's in the nave but also insisted that Hooker be
cremated Cremation is a method of final disposition of a dead body through burning. Cremation may serve as a funeral or post-funeral rite and as an alternative to burial. In some countries, including India and Nepal, cremation on an open-air pyre i ...
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 St Anne's Church, Kew, is a parish church in Kew in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The building, which dates from 1714, and is Grade II* listed, forms the central focus of Kew Green. The raised churchyard, which is on three sides of ...
, on Kew Green, within short distance of Kew Gardens. His memorial tablet in the church, with a motif of five plants, was designed by Matilda Smith.


Work


Voyage to the Antarctic 1839–1843

Hooker's first expedition, led by James Clark Ross, consisted of two ships, and ; 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 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 ) , anthem = ( en, "Anthem of the Autonomous Region of Madeira") , song_type = Regional anthem , image_map=EU-Portugal_with_Madeira_circled.svg , map_alt=Location of Madeira , map_caption=Location of Madeira , subdivision_type=Sovereign st ...
, Tenerife, Santiago and Quail Island in the
Cape Verde , national_anthem = () , official_languages = Portuguese , national_languages = Cape Verdean Creole , capital = Praia , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , demonym ...
archipelago,
St Paul Rocks The Saint Peter and Saint Paul Archipelago ( pt, Arquipélago de São Pedro e São Paulo ) is a group of 15 small islets and rocks in the central equatorial Atlantic Ocean.
, Trinidade east of Brazil,
St Helena Saint Helena () is a British overseas territory located in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote volcanic tropical island west of the coast of south-western Africa, and east of Rio de Janeiro in South America. It is one of three constitu ...
, and the
Cape of Good Hope The Cape of Good Hope ( af, Kaap die Goeie Hoop ) ;''Kaap'' in isolation: pt, Cabo da Boa Esperança is a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape Peninsula in South Africa. A common misconception is that the Cape of Good Hope is t ...
. Hooker made plant collections at each location and while travelling drew these and specimens of
algae Algae (; singular alga ) is an informal term for a large and diverse group of photosynthetic eukaryotic organisms. It is a polyphyletic grouping that includes species from multiple distinct clades. Included organisms range from unicellular mic ...
and sea life pulled aboard using tow nets. From the Cape they entered the Southern Ocean. Their first stop was the
Crozet Islands The Crozet Islands (french: Îles Crozet; or, officially, ''Archipel Crozet'') are a sub-Antarctic archipelago of small islands in the southern Indian Ocean. They form one of the five administrative districts of the French Southern and Antarcti ...
where they set down on Possession Island to deliver coffee to sealers. They departed for the
Kerguelen Islands The Kerguelen Islands ( or ; in French commonly ' but officially ', ), also known as the Desolation Islands (' in French), are a group of islands in the sub-Antarctic constituting one of the two exposed parts of the Kerguelen Plateau, a large ...
where they would spend several days. Hooker identified 18 flowering plants, 35
moss Mosses are small, non-vascular flowerless plants in the taxonomic division Bryophyta (, ) '' sensu stricto''. Bryophyta (''sensu lato'', Schimp. 1879) may also refer to the parent group bryophytes, which comprise liverworts, mosses, and hor ...
es and
liverworts The Marchantiophyta () are a division of non-vascular land plants commonly referred to as hepatics or liverworts. Like mosses and hornworts, they have a gametophyte-dominant life cycle, in which cells of the plant carry only a single set of ge ...
, 25
lichen A lichen ( , ) is a composite organism that arises from algae or cyanobacteria living among filaments of multiple fungi species in a mutualistic relationship.Hobart Hobart ( ; Nuennonne/Palawa kani: ''nipaluna'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian island state of Tasmania. Home to almost half of all Tasmanians, it is the least-populated Australian state capital city, and second-small ...
, 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 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 the colony and gain every information icrespecting its products'. Subsequently, the Ross expedition made a landing at Cockburn Island off the
Antarctic Peninsula The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...
, and after leaving the Antarctic, stopped at the Cape, St Helena and
Ascension Island Ascension Island is an isolated volcanic island, 7°56′ south of the Equator in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is about from the coast of Africa and from the coast of South America. It is governed as part of the British Overseas Territory o ...
. 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 the existence of the southern continent and chart much of its coastline.


Geological Survey of Great Britain

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 John Hutton Balfour (15 September 1808 – 11 February 1884) was a Scottish botanist. Balfour became a Professor of Botany, first at the University of Glasgow in 1841, moving to the University of Edinburgh and also becoming the 7th Regius Keepe ...
. The Darwin correspondence, now public, makes clear Darwin's sense of shock at this unexpected outcome. Hooker declined 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 A coal ball is a type of concretion, varying in shape from an imperfect sphere to a flat-lying, irregular slab. Coal balls were formed in Carboniferous Period swamps and mires, when peat was prevented from being turned into coal by the high am ...
in 1855. He became engaged to Frances Henslow, daughter of Charles Darwin's botany tutor John Stevens Henslow, but he 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 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.


Voyage to the Himalayas and India 1847–1851

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 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 , 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 Mirzapur () is a city in Uttar Pradesh, India, 827 km from Delhi and 733 km from Kolkata, almost 91 km from Prayagraj (formally known as Allahabad) and 61 km from Varanasi. It is known for its carpets and brassware industries, and the folk ...
, up the Ganges by boat to
Siliguri Siliguri, ) is a major tier-II city in West Bengal. It forms twin cities, "Twin Cities" with the neighboring district capital of Jalpaiguri. The city spans areas of the Darjeeling district, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts in the Indian sta ...
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 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 The Rangeet or Rangit is a tributary of the Teesta river, which is the largest river in the Indian state of Sikkim. The Rangeet river originates in the Himalayan mountains in West Sikkim district. The river also forms the boundary between Sikk ...
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 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 3May, 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.Letter number 1558: To J.D. Hooker. 10 March 1854.
The Darwin Correspondence Online Database.
A British team was sent to negotiate with 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
rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...
s found in English gardens of 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 Sylhet ( bn, সিলেট) is a metropolitan city in northeastern Bangladesh. It is the administrative seat of the Sylhet Division. Located on the north bank of the Surma River at the eastern tip of Bengal, Sylhet has a subtropical climate an ...
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 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. Hooker's survey of hitherto unexplored regions, the ''Himalayan Journals'', dedicated to Charles Darwin, was published by the Calcutta
Trigonometrical Survey The Principal Triangulation of Britain was the first high-precision triangulation survey of the whole of Great Britain (including Ireland), carried out between 1791 and 1853 under the auspices of the Board of Ordnance. The aim of the survey was t ...
Office in 1854, abbreviated again in 1855 and later by 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 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 Walter Hood Fitch (28 February 1817 – 1892) was a botanical illustrator, born in Glasgow, Scotland, who executed some 10,000 drawings for various publications. His work in colour lithograph, including 2700 illustrations for ''Curtis's Bot ...
(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 the ''
Flora Antarctica The ''Flora Antarctica'', or formally and correctly ''The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror in the years 1839–1843, under the Command of Captain Sir James Clark Ross'', is a description of the many plants ...
'' (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).


Voyage to Palestine 1860

This trip was taken in the autumn of 1860, with
Daniel Hanbury Daniel Hanbury FRS (11 September 1825 – 24 March 1875) was a British botanist and pharmacologist. He was an early student of pharmacognosy, the study of the medicinal applications of nature, principally of plants. Life Hanbury was born o ...
. They visited and collected in
Syria Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
and
Palestine __NOTOC__ Palestine may refer to: * State of Palestine, a state in Western Asia * Palestine (region), a geographic region in Western Asia * Palestinian territories, territories occupied by Israel since 1967, namely the West Bank (including East ...
; no full-length report 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.


Voyage to Morocco 1871

Hooker visited Morocco from April to June 1871, in the company of John Ball, George Maw and a young gardener from Kew, called Crump.


Voyage to Western United States 1877

This was undertaken with his friend
Asa Gray Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...
, 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 demarkation 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 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 La Veta ( , Spanish for "the vein") is a statutory town in Huerfano County, Colorado, United States. The town population was 800 as of the 2010 United States Census. History Col. John M. Francisco, the sutler at Fort Garland, and his busines ...
. From
Fort Garland Fort Garland (1858–1883), Colorado, United States, was designed to house two companies of soldiers to protect settlers in the San Luis Valley, then in the Territory of New Mexico. It was named for General John Garland, commander of the Military ...
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 the Wasatch Range. A journey of 29 hours took them to Reno and
Carson City Carson City is an Independent city (United States), independent city and the capital of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 58,639, making it the List of cities in Nevada, sixth largest ...
, then Silver City and ten days by wagon across the
Sierra Nevada The Sierra Nevada () is a mountain range in the Western United States, between the Central Valley of California and the Great Basin. The vast majority of the range lies in the state of California, although the Carson Range spur lies primarily ...
. Thus they came to the
Yosemite Yosemite National Park ( ) is an American national park in California, surrounded on the southeast by Sierra National Forest and on the northwest by Stanislaus National Forest. The park is managed by the National Park Service and covers an ar ...
and
Calaveras Grove Calaveras Big Trees State Park is a state park of California, United States, preserving two groves of giant sequoia trees. It is located 4 miles (6.4 km) northeast of Arnold, California in the middle elevations of the Sierra Nevada. It h ...
, 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: * After meeting and talking to Brigham Young, whom he described as respectable and well-spoken: "All the school children are brought up to believe in him righam Young and in a lot of scripture history as useless and idle as that taught in our schools." * Of Georgetown: the "finger-tip of civilisation" where "the people sleep without locks to their doors, the fire-engines are well-manned and in capital order, and there is no end of food". * "The New Englanders are most like us in language, speech and habits... The Americans are great and promiscuous eaters... beds are remarkably clean and good, but the pillows are too soft." His views on the flora of Colorado and Utah: There are two temperate, and two cold or mountain floras, viz: 1. 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 Alpine flora may refer to: * Alpine tundra, a community of plants that live at high altitude * Alpine plant Alpine plants are plants that grow in an alpine climate, which occurs at high elevation and above the tree line. There are many different pl ...
, 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: :Polar area, from the Behring Strait to Greenland. :British North American flora, south of the Arctic flora, in five meridional belts. :United States flora, in belts: ::The Great Eastern Forest region, from the Atlantic to beyond the Mississippi. ::The Prairie region. ::The Sink region, confined to gullies of the mountains. ::The Sierra Nevada.


Darwin and evolution

While on the ''Erebus'', Hooker had read proofs of Charles Darwin's ''
Voyage of the Beagle The second voyage of HMS ''Beagle'', from 27 December 1831 to 2 October 1836, was the second survey expedition of HMS ''Beagle'', under captain Robert FitzRoy who had taken over command of the ship on its first voyage after the previous capt ...
'' provided by
Charles Lyell Sir Charles Lyell, 1st Baronet, (14 November 1797 – 22 February 1875) was a Scottish geologist who demonstrated the power of known natural causes in explaining the earth's history. He is best known as the author of ''Principles of Geolo ...
and had been very impressed by Darwin's skill as 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 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". 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 the two people Darwin consulted (by letter) when
Alfred Russel Wallace Alfred Russel Wallace (8 January 1823 – 7 November 1913) was a British naturalist, explorer, geographer, anthropologist, biologist and illustrator. He is best known for independently conceiving the theory of evolution through natural se ...
's famous letter arrived at
Down House Down House is the former home of the English naturalist Charles Darwin and his family. It was in this house and garden that Darwin worked on his theory of evolution by natural selection, which he had conceived in London before moving to Down ...
, 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 Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...
(showing his prior realisation of natural selection) in a presentation to the Linnean Society. Hooker was 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 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 The Oxford University Museum of Natural History, sometimes known simply as the Oxford University Museum or OUMNH, is a museum displaying many of the University of Oxford's natural history specimens, located on Parks Road in Oxford, England. It a ...
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 was he and not Huxley who delivered the most effective reply to Wilberforce's arguments.Thomson, Keith Stewart (2000).
Huxley, Wilberforce and the Oxford Museum
, ''
American Scientist __NOTOC__ ''American Scientist'' (informally abbreviated ''AmSci'') is an American bimonthly science and technology magazine published since 1913 by Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society. In the beginning of 2000s the headquarters was in New ...
'', May–June 2000. Retrieved on 7 January 2009.
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 The X Club was a dining club of nine men who supported the theories of natural selection and academic liberalism in late 19th-century England. Thomas Henry Huxley was the initiator; he called the first meeting for 3 November 1864. The club met ...
(which dominated the Royal Society in the 1870s and early 1880s), and 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 The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...
.


Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

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 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 The Royal Medal, also known as The Queen's Medal and The King's Medal (depending on the gender of the monarch at the time of the award), is a silver-gilt medal, of which three are awarded each year by the Royal Society, two for "the most important ...
in 1854, the Copley in 1887 and the
Darwin Medal The Darwin Medal is one of the medals awarded by the Royal Society for "distinction in evolution, biological diversity and developmental, population and organismal biology". In 1885, International Darwin Memorial Fund was transferred to the ...
in 1892. He continued to intersperse work at Kew with foreign exploration and collecting. His journeys to Palestine, Morocco and 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
rhododendron ''Rhododendron'' (; from Ancient Greek ''rhódon'' "rose" and ''déndron'' "tree") is a very large genus of about 1,024 species of woody plants in the heath family (Ericaceae). They can be either evergreen or deciduous. Most species are nati ...
s of the Sikkim Himalaya and on the flora of India. His works were illustrated with lithographs by
Walter Hood Fitch Walter Hood Fitch (28 February 1817 – 1892) was a botanical illustrator, born in Glasgow, Scotland, who executed some 10,000 drawings for various publications. His work in colour lithograph, including 2700 illustrations for ''Curtis's Bot ...
. His greatest botanical work 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 The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...
. He was the author of numerous scientific papers and monographs, and his larger books included, in addition to those already mentioned, 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 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 Sir William Jackson Hooker (6 July 178512 August 1865) was an English botanist and botanical illustrator, who became the first director of Kew when in 1841 it was recommended to be placed under state ownership as a botanic garden. At Kew he ...
's project,
Icones Plantarum ''Icones Plantarum'' is an extensive series of published volumes of botanical illustration, initiated by Sir William Jackson Hooker. The Latin name of the work means "Illustrations of Plants". The illustrations are drawn from herbarium specimens o ...
(Illustrations of Plants), producing volumes eleven through nineteen, with most of the illustrations being prepared for him by Matilda Smith.


Attacks on Hooker and on Kew

The
Herbarium A herbarium (plural: herbaria) is a collection of preserved plant specimens and associated data used for scientific study. The specimens may be whole plants or plant parts; these will usually be in dried form mounted on a sheet of paper (called ...
at Kew was founded in 1853, and quickly grew in size and importance. At the time,
Richard Owen Sir Richard Owen (20 July 1804 – 18 December 1892) was an English biologist, comparative anatomist and paleontologist. Owen is generally considered to have been an outstanding naturalist with a remarkable gift for interpreting fossils. Owe ...
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. 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 The X Club was a dining club of nine men who supported the theories of natural selection and academic liberalism in late 19th-century England. Thomas Henry Huxley was the initiator; he called the first meeting for 3 November 1864. The club met ...
, 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 Sir Joseph Banks, 1st Baronet, (19 June 1820) was an English naturalist, botanist, and patron of the natural sciences. Banks made his name on the 1766 natural-history expedition to Newfoundland and Labrador. He took part in Captain James ...
should be moved from the British Museum to Kew, a reasonable idea, but 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 Acton Smee Ayrton (5 August 1816 – 30 November 1886) was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician. Considered a radical and champion of the working classes, he served as First Commissioner of Works under William Ewart Gladstone between ...
, whose appointment as First Commissioner of Works by
Gladstone William Ewart Gladstone ( ; 29 December 1809 – 19 May 1898) was a British statesman and Liberal politician. In a career lasting over 60 years, he served for 12 years as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, spread over four non-conse ...
in 1869 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 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: Finally, Hooker asked to be put in communication with Gladstone's private secretary,
Algernon West Sir Algernon Edward West (4 April 1832 – 21 March 1921) was an English civil servant. He acted as Principal Private Secretary to Prime Minister William Gladstone. Biography He was the third son of Martin John West and Lady Maria Walpole, thi ...
. A statement was drawn up over the signatures of
Darwin Darwin may refer to: Common meanings * Charles Darwin (1809–1882), English naturalist and writer, best known as the originator of the theory of biological evolution by natural selection * Darwin, Northern Territory, a territorial capital city i ...
, Lyell,
Huxley Huxley may refer to: People * Huxley (surname) * The British Huxley family * Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–1895), British biologist known as "Darwin's Bulldog" * Aldous Huxley (1894–1963), British writer, author of ''Brave New World'', grandson ...
,
Tyndall Tyndall (the original spelling, also Tyndale, "Tindol", Tyndal, Tindoll, Tindall, Tindal, Tindale, Tindle, Tindell, Tindill, and Tindel) is the name of an English family taken from the land they held as tenants in chief of the Kings of Engla ...
, 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 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 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 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, the value of the Botanic Gardens has never been seriously questioned. In the midst of this crisis, Hooker was elected as President of the Royal Society in 1873. This showed publicly the high regard which Hooker's fellow scientists had for him, and the great importance they attached to his work.


Honours and commemoration

* 1847 Fellow of the Royal Society * 1869 Companion of the Order of the Bath *1869 Election to the American Philosophical Society * 1877 Knight Commander of the Order of the Star of India * 1873 President of the Royal Society * 1883 Founder's Medal of the
Royal Geographical Society The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers), often shortened to RGS, is a learned society and professional body for geography based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical scien ...
* 1885 Foreign member of the
Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences ( nl, Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, abbreviated: KNAW) is an organization dedicated to the advancement of science and literature in the Netherlands. The academy is housed ...
* 1897 Knight Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India * 1902 Pour le Mérite from the Kingdom of Prussia, awarded by the German Emperor * 1907
Order of Merit The Order of Merit (french: link=no, Ordre du Mérite) is an order of merit for the Commonwealth realms, recognising distinguished service in the armed forces, science, art, literature, or for the promotion of culture. Established in 1902 by K ...
Hooker Oak Hooker Oak was an extremely large valley oak tree (''Quercus lobata'') in Chico, California. Amateur botanist and local socialite Annie Bidwell, whose husband had founded Chico, named the tree in 1887 after English botanist and Director of the ...
in Chico, California, was named after him. Hooker Island in Franz Josef Land was named after him following its 1880 discovery. p. 17.


Taxa named in honour

* There are number (at least 30) of plants with
specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...
''hookeri'' and ''hookeriana'' Many of them are named in honour of Joseph Dalton Hooker. Including; '' Banksia hookeriana'', '' Grevillea hookeriana'', ''
Iris hookeriana ''Iris hookeriana'' is a plant species in the genus ''Iris'', it is also in the subgenus ''Iris'' and in the section ''Pseudoregelia''. It is a rhizomatous perennial, from the Himalayan mountains of India and Pakistan. It has long pale green or ...
'', ''
Polygonatum hookeri ''Polygonatum'' , also known as King Solomon's-seal or Solomon's seal, is a genus of flowering plants. In the APG III classification system, it is placed in the family Asparagaceae, subfamily Nolinoideae (formerly the family Ruscaceae). It has ...
'', and '' Sarcococca hookeriana''. * land snail ''
Notodiscus hookeri ''Notodiscus hookeri'' is a species of small air-breathing land snail, a terrestrial gastropod mollusk in the family Charopidae. This snail lives on islands in the sub-Antarctic region. Its shell is unique among land snails in that the organic sh ...
'' (Reeve, 1854) * Sea Lion: New Zealand or Hooker's Sea Lion ''
Phocarctos hookeri The New Zealand sea lion (''Phocarctos hookeri''), once known as Hooker's sea lion, and as or (male) and (female) in Māori, is a species of sea lion that is endemic to New Zealand and primarily breeds on New Zealand's subantarctic Auckland a ...
'' (Gray, 1844)


Selected publications

* 1844–1859: ''Flora Antarctica: the botany of the Antarctic voyage''. 3 vols, 1844 (general), 1853 (New Zealand), 1859 (Tasmania). Reeve, London. * 1864–1867: ''Handbook of the New Zealand flora'' * 1849: ''Niger flora'' * 1849–1851: ''The Rhododendrons of Sikkim–Himalaya'' * 1854:
Himalayan Journals, or notes of a naturalist, in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Himalayas, Khasia Mountains ...
' * 1855: ''Illustrations of Himalayan plants'' * 1855: ''Flora indica'', with Thomas Thomson * 1858: (" Bentham & Hooker") * 1859: ''A century of Indian orchids'' * 1859: ''Introductory Essay to the Flora of Australia'' * 1862–1883: with George Bentham * 1862–1883: with George Bentham * 1870; 1878: ''The student's flora of the British Isles''. Macmillan, London. * 1872–1897: * with
Emmanuel Le Maout Jean-Emmanuel-Marie Le Maout (29 December 1799, Guingamp – 23 June 1877, Paris) was a French naturalist. In 1842, Le Maout qualified as a physician at the University of Paris, where he became a demonstrator of natural sciences in the Facul ...
* 1898–1900: ''Handbook to the Ceylon flora'' * 1904–1906: ''An epitome to the British Indian species of Impatiens''


Standard author abbreviation


See also

* Bentham & Hooker system * European and American voyages of scientific exploration * :Taxa named by Joseph Dalton Hooker


References


Notes


Citations


Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *


Further reading

* * * *


External links

*
Hooker's letters from the Kew Gardens' archive
*
Darwin–Hooker Correspondence
at the Cambridge Digital Library
Joseph Dalton Hooker
s work on orchids
"Hooker, Joseph Dalton (1817–1911)" ''Botanicus''
Missouri Botanical Garden Library * ** Gutenberg e-text o
Hooker's Himalayan Journals
* *

– Correspondence to Joseph Dalton Hooker as Director of The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew {{DEFAULTSORT:Hooker, Joseph Dalton 19th-century British botanists 19th-century explorers 1817 births 1911 deaths Alumni of the University of Glasgow Botanists active in Australia Botanists active in India Botanists active in Kew Gardens Botanists active in New Zealand British Geological Survey British mycologists British pteridologists Bryologists Burials at St. Anne's Church, Kew Charles Darwin Companions of the Order of the Bath Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences English botanists English explorers Evolutionary biologists Fellows of the Ethnological Society of London Fellows of the Royal Society Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Knights Grand Commander of the Order of the Star of India Members of the Order of Merit Members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Paleobotanists People educated at the High School of Glasgow People from Halesworth Phycologists Plant collectors Presidents of the Royal Society Recipients of the Copley Medal Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) Royal Medal winners Victoria Medal of Honour (Horticulture) recipients