Between 18 he made famous collections in the Himalayas, and travelled in Morocco and the Middle East, but it was around Hooker's first expedition that Endersby constructs his arguments. Equally important for his future, he made lasting friendships with local botanists whom, on his return, he would weave into the centre of his worldwide web of collectors. Hooker made notable plant collections from Van Dieman's Land (Tasmania), New Zealand and Antartica, which provided the launch pad for his career. He neatly side-stepped the seniority, and claims, of the Surgeon, Robert McCormick, whose expertise was in zoology. Most importantly he won from Ross the right to be considered Botanist to the expedition, with first claim to all botanical collections. Next, with the help of his father's connections, and some hard-nosed wrangling, he managed to secure the position of Assistant Surgeon aboard HMS Erebus on James Clark Ross' expedition of 1839–43 that explored the Earth's magnetic variation in the southern oceans. Joseph inherited his father's interest in plants but, like so many men who later became distinguished botanists, he judged that a training in medicine offered better career prospects. He relinquished this poorly paid post in 1841 for the slightly better paid Directorship of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (Joseph succeeded him in 1865). Joseph's father, William, became Professor of Botany in the University of Glasgow after selling the family business. And tension between the need of institutions, like Kew, for public funding and their fears about loss of financial and strategic independence. Tension between Kew's need for local collectors who would scour the colonies for novel plants and its need to control the naming and classification of those plants. Tension between the need for more paid jobs in botany and the need of those lucky enough to find employment to be classed as gentlemen – public-spirited while disinterested in personal gain. He focusses on the years 1825–75, when the flora of Britain's colonies was intensively explored and exploited and, not unconnectedly, at the time Joseph Hooker (1817–1911) built his own reputation and then that of his own Empire at Kew. Jim Endersby adds a new dimension to this familiar story, demonstrating the critical importance of money and status in botany's development. The pace and direction of the emergent science of botany in 19th century Britain was shaped by the growth of Empire.
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