HOOKER.
585
he was for some time kept prisoner by one of the border rajahs. He returned in 1851> and published two very interesting volumes of " Himalayan Journals/' and a num- ber of scientific works on the botany of India. In 1850^ while in India^ he published some beautiful sketches of rhododendrons from the Sikkim Himalaya, several of which have since been introduced into England. These expeditions, though partly at his own expense, were conducted under the authority of Government, which supplied some of the funds. He was ap- pointed, in 1855, Assistant-Director of Kew Gardens; and, on his father's death, in 1865, succeeded to the Directorship. He was some time Examiner in Natural Science of candidates for medical appoint- ments in the Boyal Army and late East-India Company's service, and Examiner in Botany to the London University and Apothecaries' Com- pany. In the autumn of 1860 he made a short tour in Syria, in com- pany with Mr. Hanbury, F.L.S., during which he paid special atten- tion to the oaks of that coimtry, in the hope of being able to throw some light on their very intricate and confused history. The result of the investigation was given to the Linnsean Society in a paper on The Three Oaks of Palestine." Dr. Hooker presided over the meet- ing of the British Association, held at Norwich in 1868. The main subject of his address, which gave rise to much controversy, was the consideration of the views put for- ward from time to time by Mr. Darwin on the doctrine of the con- tinuous evolution of life, and in connexion with this, on what is termed "natural selection," to- gether with his theory of the " origin of species." To Darwin's notions, expressed in their fuUest extent. Dr. Hooker gave in his entire adhesion. He was appointed a Companion of the Baui (Civil Division) in 1869. In April, 1871,
Dr. Hooker left England for Mo- rocco, in company with Mr. John Ball, P.B.S., his purpose being to collect the plants of that compara- tively unexplored country. On the 16th of May he and his companions made the ascent of the Great Atlas, the summit of which moun- tain had never before been trodden by a European ; and at the close of June he returned to £ew, bringing a large collection of the plants. In 1877 he was created Knight Commander of the Star of India, for his services to the Government of India. In that vear he paid a visit of three months' duration to the United States, where he was most cordially received by the lead- ing scientific men. In his report on Kew Gardens for 1877, he says : — An extended leave having been granted to me for the purpose, I accepted an invitation from the chief of the Topographical and Geological Surveys of the United States to join his surveying party in Colorado and Utah. Thjs I did with the double object of preparing gratuitously, in concert wiui Dr. Asa Gray JProf essor of Botany in Harvard University, Cambridge, U.S.), a report on the botany of those regions (for the U.S. Govern- ment), and of establishing personal relations with many of the corre- spondents of Kew, who are resident in the State. Immediately after my arrival at Boston (in the begin- ning of July), in company with Dr. Gray, I left for the Eocky Moun- tains of Colorado. After a month spent in Colorado I visited Utah, Nevada, and California, returning to Boston, which I left in the be- ginning of October." During the journey the most distinctive fea- tures of the vegetation of the mid- dle regions of the continent were visited from the Atlantic to the Pacific, including the eastern forests extending to the Mississippi, the Prairies, the temperate, sub- alpine, and alpine zones of the Bocky Mountains, and the Sierra
