Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker (Born: 1817 – Died : 1911), the British botanist and explorer, and Charles Darwin’s close friend, was a founder of geographical botany and served as Director of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew, for 20 years. Further reading :
A significant part of his career involved the three-year Himalayan expedition, which began on November 11, 1847. He was the first European to collect plants in the Himalaya, arriving in Calcutta on January 12, 1848, and eventually reaching Darjeeling on April 16, 1848.Highlights of his time in India included a visit to Darjeeling, where he stayed with naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson. Another adventure on Hooker’s trip to India was his negotiations with the British East India Company representative, Archibald Campbell, for admission to Sikkim, where he was later briefly imprisoned by the Raja. He explored eastern Nepal, along the Great Runjeet River, and into the Singalila range and finally he reached Sylhet and the Khasi Hills in Assam with Thomas Thomson.
