Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker Traveller and Plant Collector.

Ray Desmond.

A substantial and well illustrated account of the eminent Victorian botanist Joseph Dalton Hooker, 1817-1911. Includes details of his part in the great Antarctic exploration under the leadership of Sir James Clark Ross in HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, 1839-43. On this voyage Hooker visited the Bay of Islands in 1841. During his three month stay there he collected many plants and travelled in the company of New Zealand missionary printer and botanist William Colenso. Hooker also visited the sub Antarctic Auckland Islands and Campbell Island. Botanical material collected in New Zealand and the sub Antarctic subsequently enabled Hooker to produce his celebrated two volume Flora Novae-Zelandiae of 1852-55. He also made journeys of botanical exploration to the Himalayas, to Syria and Lebanon, to the Atlas mountains of Morocco and to the Rockies and California. He was a friend and correspondent of Charles Darwin to whom he sent scientific data and his theories on plant distribution. He eventually became the Director of Kew, succeeding his father Sir William Hooker, in 1865. The volume contains many fine illustrations including some of Hooker’s own paintings and drawings. A large heavy book.

Antique Collectors’ Club with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Woodbridge UK, 1999.

ISBN 9781851493050

Hardback with dust jacket, 286 pages.

SECONDHAND. Fine condition.