A fine portrait of the botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865). Hooker enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring, collecting and organising work, knighted in 1836 for his services to botany.

A fine portrait of the botanist Sir William Jackson Hooker (1785-1865). Hooker enjoyed the friendship and support of Sir Joseph Banks for his exploring, collecting and organising work, knighted in 1836 for his services to botany.

In 1841 he succeeded William Townsend Aiton as Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. During his career, the gardens at Kew were expanded greatly, an arboretum was established, new glass-houses were built, and a museum of economic botany was established. A prolific writer, among his publications are The British Jungermanniae (1816), Flora Scotica (1821), and Species Filicum (1846–64).

His son, Joseph Dalton Hooker succeeded his father as Director at Kew and as a young man sailed on Ross's Antarctic Expedition and published his results in six lavishly produced volumes: Florae Novae-zelandiae, Florae Antarctica and Flora Tasmaniae: the latter one of the great contributions to Australian botany.