cies it contains. Bentham tells us:
"After De Candolle, independently of the great works of Darwin... the
first important addition to the science of geographical botany was that
made by Hooker in his "Introductory Essay to the Flora of Tasmania",
which, though contemporaneous only with the "Origin of Species", was
drawn up with a general knowledge of his friend's observations and
views." (Pres. Addr. (1869), "Proc. Linn. Soc." 1868-69, page lxxiv.) It
cannot be doubted that this and the great memoir on the "Distribution of
Arctic Plants" were only less epoch-making than the "Origin" itself, and
must have supplied a powerful support to the general theory of organic
evolution.

Darwin always asserted his "entire ignorance of Botany." ("More
Letters", I. page 400.) But this was only part of his constant
half-humorous self-depreciation. He had been a pupil of Henslow, and it
is evident that he had a good working knowledge of systematic botany. He
could find his way about in the literature and always cites the names of
plants with scrupulous accuracy. It was because he felt the want of
such a work for his own researches that he urged the preparation of
the "Index Kewensis", and undertook to defray the expense. It has been
thought singular that he should have been elected a "correspondant"
of the Academie des Sciences in the section of Botany, but it is not
surprising that his work in Geographical Botany made the botanists
anxious to claim him. His heart went with them. "It has always pleased
me," he tells us, "to exalt plants in the scale of organised beings."
("Life and Letters", I. page 98.) And he declares that he finds "any
proposition more easily tested in botanical works (Ibid. II. page 99.)
than in zoological."

In the "Introductory Essay" Hooker dwelt on the "continuous current of
vegetation from Scandinavia to Tasmania" ("Introductory Essay to the
Flora of Tasmania", London, 1859. Reprinted from the "Botany of the
Antarctic Expedition", Part III., "Flora of Tasmania", Vol I. page
ciii.), but finds little evidence of one in the reverse direction.
"In the New World, Arctic, Scandinavian, and North American genera and
species are continuously extended from the north to the south temperate
and even Antarctic zones; but scarcely one Antarctic species, or even
genus advances north beyond the Gulf of Mexico" (page civ.). Hooker
considered that this negatived "the idea that the Southern and Northern
Floras have had common