(1817-1911)English botanist, who, after making several explorations throughout the world, co-authored Genera Plantarum, a worldwidestudy of the distribution of plants. Between 1865 and 1885 Hooker was the director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, a leading botanical institution located near London. He was one of the first to show the value of applying evolutionarytheory to botany, particularly in the field of plantgeography. As a friend and confidant of Charles Darwin (known for his theory of evolution), Hooker exerted his influence to get Darwin's theories on species development published.