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Hooker, Sir Joseph Dalton (18171911), botanist,
biogeographer and traveller. The younger son of Sir William Jackson Hooker and
his wife Maria, daughter of Dawson Turner. Hooker was born at Halesworth,
Suffolk, on 30 June 1817. He was educated at Glasgow High School and later at
Glasgow university, where his father was regius professor of botany. He
graduated M.D. in 1839.
Hooker attended his fathers university botany lectures from
the age of seven and formed an interest in plant distribution. Another early
enthusiasm was travellers tales he recalled sitting on his
grandfathers knee, looking at the pictures in Captain Cooks
Voyages. He was particularly struck by one of Cooks sailors
killing penguins on Kerguelens Land, and he remembered thinking that,
I should be the happiest boy alive if ever I would see that wonderful
arched rock, and knock penguins on the head (Huxley 1918: 6). |