Colonial correspondents and Joseph Dalton Hooker

• Published in: Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania
• Main Author: Hansen, Anita
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: William Archer; Joseph Dalton Hooker; natural history; botany; Flora Tasmaniae; Ronald Campbell Gunn; William Colenso; Royal Society of Tasmania; RST; Van Diemens Land; science; papers & proceedings; Australia; Antarctic; Archer; Endeavour; Gunn; Hooker; Southern Ocean; The Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://eprints.utas.edu.au/22577/; https://eprints.utas.edu.au/22577/7/2012-%20Hansen.pdf

Dr Joseph Dalton Hooker of Kew Gardens in London built his reputation as a botanist, to a large extent, on his publication of the floras of the southern ocean, namely his The Botany of The Antarctic Voyage of HM Discovery Ships Erebus and Terror, in the Years 1839–1843, a set of books that contains Flora Antarctica, Flora Novae Zelandiae and Flora Tasmaniae. Although Hooker had visited all of these places on the voyage and collected a substantial number of botanical specimens for his research, he alone could not have assembled the comprehensive herbarium needed for such a wide-ranging set of flora. To aid him in this endeavour, Hooker relied on an enthusiastic group of colonial correspondents and collectors. He regarded the specimens, and the information about them, sent by the colonial correspondents as belonging to the metropolitan centre at Kew. However, as these correspondents gained botanical knowledge, in particular William Archer, Ronald Campbell Gunn and William Colenso, they clamoured for recognition of their expertise, something Hooker was not always willing to bestow.