HOOKER, SIR JOSEPH DALTON , English botanist and traveller, was born on June 3o, 1817, at Halesworth, Suffolk. He was educated at Glasgow university, and after taking his M.D. in 1839 joined Sir James Ross's Antarctic expedition as assistant-surgeon. On his return in 1843 he published Flora Ant arctica, Flora Novae Zelandiae and Flora Tasmanica. His next expedition was to the northern frontiers of India (1847-51), his survey of hitherto unexplored regions being published by the Calcutta Trigonometrical Survey Office. Hooker journeyed to Palestine (1860), Morocco (1871) and the United States (1877). In 1855 he was appointed assistant-director of Kew Gardens, and from 1865-85 he was full director. He was president of the Royal Society from 1873-78. He was a friend of Darwin, and with Lyell induced Darwin to make public his views on the origin of species.
Hooker's works, in addition to those already mentioned, in clude Outlines of the Distribution of Arctic Plants (1862) , a standard Student's Flora of the British Isles (1870) and a monu mental work, the Genera plantarum (1862-83) based on the col lections at Kew. On the publication of the last part of his Flora of British India in 1897 he was created G.C.S.I. Among other honours he was awarded the Order of Merit in 1907. He died at Sunningdale on Dec. 1o, 1911.
See L. Huxley, Life and Letters of Sir J. D. Hooker (2 vols., 1918), containing a full list of his works.