made any communications to me in relation to his
views and labours." But, he adds, "I... fully adopted his theories and
conclusions, notwithstanding the severe pain and disappointment they
at first occasioned me." ("Life and Letters", II. page 294.) Scientific
history can have few incidents more worthy. I do not know what is most
striking in the story, the pathos or the moral dignity of Bentham's
attitude.

Darwin necessarily restricted himself in the "Origin" to establishing
the general principles which would account for the facts of
distribution, as a part of his larger argument, without attempting
to illustrate them in particular cases. This he appears to have
contemplated doing in a separate work. But writing to Hooker in 1868
he said:--"I shall to the day of my death keep up my full interest
in Geographical Distribution, but I doubt whether I shall ever have
strength to come in any fuller detail than in the "Origin" to this grand
subject." ("More Letters", II. page 7.) This must be always a matter for
regret. But we may gather some indication of his later speculations from
the letters, the careful publication of which by F. Darwin has rendered
a service to science, the value of which it is difficult to exaggerate.
They admit us to the workshop, where we see a great theory, as it were,
in the making. The later ideas that they contain were not it is true
public property at the time. But they were communicated to the leading
biologists of the day and indirectly have had a large influence.

If Darwin laid the foundation, the present fabric of Botanical Geography
must be credited to Hooker. It was a happy partnership. The far-seeing,
generalising power of the one was supplied with data and checked in
conclusions by the vast detailed knowledge of the other. It may be
permitted to quote Darwin's generous acknowledgment when writing the
"Origin":--"I never did pick any one's pocket, but whilst writing my
present chapter I keep on feeling (even when differing most from you)
just as if I were stealing from you, so much do I owe to your writings
and conversation, so much more than mere acknowledgements show." ("Life
and Letters", II. page 148 (footnote).) Fourteen years before he had
written to Hooker: "I know I shall live to see you the first authority
in Europe on... Geographical Distribution." (Ibid. I. page 336.) We owe
it to Hooker that no one now undertakes the flora of a country without
indicating the range of the spe