The Hookers and the development of the Royal Botanic Gardens,Kew*

Following the recommendations of an investigating committee headed by John Lindley, responsibility for the maintenance of the neglected royal estates at Kew was assumed by the State in 1840. Sir William Jackson Hooker, who had long coveted the post, was appointed the first Director. Under his able supervision, the Royal Botanic Gardens rapidly expanded and were imaginatively landscaped, new greenhouses, including the famous Palm House, were erected, and three museums of economic botany were opened. Hooker's own extensive collections formed the nucleus of the Herbarium and Library which made Kew an important centre of taxonomic research. Joseph Dalton Hooker who succeeded his father as Director, although continuing to improve and develop the Gardens, concentrated his efforts on essentially scientific activities particularly in the fields of systematics and phytogeography. To a great extent the international reputation enjoyed by the Gardens today is due to the vision, determination and energy of the two Hookers.     

Interpreting the origin of mammals: new approaches to the history of palaeontology

New sociological techniques in the history of science are described. Their value is illustrated by reinterpreting the diagnostic disputes which occurred following the first discovery of the Stonesfield mammals. It is concluded that contextual explanations are more sympathetic to early savants and more conducive to the integration of science and social history.     

REASSESSMENT OF THE GENUS LEANCHOILIA (ARTHROPODA, ARACHNOMORPHA) FROM THE MIDDLE CAMBRIAN BURGESS SHALE, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

Abstract:  The collection, since 1975, of over 1500 specimens of Leanchoilia Walcott by the Royal Ontario Museum has prompted reassessment of the genus and its species from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale. Among new characters in Leanchoilia superlata , the type species, are the presence of two pairs of eyes, a dorsal double carina bracketing the axis of the body segments, segmentation of the gill branch of the appendages, and serration along the body edges from the posterior third of the cephalic shield to the last body segment. Leanchoilia persephone Simonetta, previously synonymized with L. superlata , is also well represented in the Burgess Shale, and is re-established as a valid species, owing to conspicuous differences from the type species. These are the absence of the diagnostic up-curving snout of the cephalic shield, the absence of carina, the shorter 'great appendages', the smooth edges of the body, and its overall shape in dorsal aspect. Leanchoilia superlata and L. persephone may be sexual dimorphs of each other. The ROM collections extend considerably the geographical distribution and stratigraphic range of Leanchoilia in western Canada.