On the flora of Australia, its origin, affinities, and distribution : being an introductory essay to the flora of Tasmania
Description: The first important botanical work by a supporter of Darwin's theory of evolution via natural selection. Hooker, an eminent taxonomic botanist and plant geographer, had been a close friend of Darwin for many years, and was aware of Darwin's gradual progression toward a belief in the mutability of species, yet he did not begin fully to support Darwin's views until shortly after the publication of On the Origin of Species (1859). In his introduction to Flora Tasmaniae, the third volume of his massive Botany of the Antarctic Voyage of H. M. Discovery Ships "Erebus" and "Terror", Hooker publicly acknowledged his acceptance of Darwinian theory, which had come about "solely and entirely from an independent study of the plants themselves" (letter to W. H. Harvey, c. 1860). Hooker's expertise in taxonomy and plant geography made him an evolutionist: He was among the first botanists to offer the mutability and derivative origins of species as an explanation for the geographic distribution of plant species. Dibner, Heralds of Science, 33. Norman 1103.
Collection: DOCUMENTARY HERITAGEDescription: The first important botanical work by a supporter of Darwin's theory of evolution via natural selection. Hooker, an eminent taxonomic botanist and plant geographer, had been a…