Sir William Jackson Hooker

Sir William Jackson Hooker 1785-1865, English botanist. A leading authority of his time on ferns, he formed a famous herbarium and built up the Glasgow Garden and the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. At Kew he founded the first museum of economic botany. Among his many works are British Jungermanniae (1816), Flora Scotica (1821), British Flora (1830), and a number of works on ferns, including Genera Filicum (1838), Species Filicum (5 vol., 1846-64), and Synopsis Filicum (1868). He edited many botanical journals. His son Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1817-1911, was also a botanist. After his first scientific expedition he wrote on the flora of New Zealand and Tasmania. Sir Joseph's great works include Antarctic Flora (1844-47), Genera Plantarum (with George Bentham, 3 vol., 1862-83), and The Flora of British India (7 vol., 1875-97). He edited the Index Kewensis (2 vol., 1895), by B. D. Jackson. He was a friend of Darwin and a defender of his theories.

Bibliography: See M. Allan, The Hookers of Kew, 1785-1911 (1967).

Hooker, Sir William Jackson (1785–1865) A British botanist and authority on cryptogamic botany, who became the first director (1841–65) of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. He studied the botany of Iceland (1809) and of France, Switzerland, and northern Italy (1814). He was appointed regius professor of botany at the University of Glasgow in 1820. He wrote prolifically, his works including Tour of Iceland (1811), two volumes of Musci Exotica (1818–20), Flora Scotica (1821), Icones Filicum (with R. K. Greville, 1829–31), British Flora (with G. A. W. Arnott et al., 1830), and British Ferns (1861–2).

Hooker, SirWilliamJackson (1785–1865)A British botanist and authority on cryptogamic botany, who became the first director (1841–65) of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew (and was succeeded by his son, Sir Joseph DaltonHooker). He studied the botany of Iceland (1809) and of France, Switzerland, and northern Italy (1814). He was appointed regius professor of botany at the University of Glasgow in 1820. He wrote prolifically, his works including Tour of Iceland (1811), two volumes of Musci Exotica (1818–20), Flora Scotica (1821), Icones Filicum (with R. K. Greville, 1829–31), British Flora (with G. A. W. Arnott et al., 1830), and British Ferns (1861–2).