Joseph Dalton Hooker

c. 1880

___

Unpublished

Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817–1911) has been called the greatest British botanist of the 19th century. His first major botanical expedition was on HMS Erebus as part of Captain James Clark Ross’s Antarctica expedition, 1839-1843. By his travels and publications such as The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H.M. Discovery-Ships Erebus and Terror in 1839–1843 (1844–60); Rhododendrons of Sikkim Himalaya (1849); The Flora of British India (1872–97); Handbook of the New Zealand Flora (1864); and Journal of a Tour in Marocco and the Great Atlas (1878), Hooker built up a solid scientific reputation. In 1855 he succeeded his father, William Jackson Hooker, as Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. In 1873 he was President of the Royal Society. He was also great friends with Charles Darwin.