Joseph Dalton Hooker

William Hooker was his father (and predecessor at Kew), Henslow his father-in-law. He went on Ross’s Antarctic expedition, and catalogued plants from the Galápagos Islands for his hero Darwin, becoming his lifelong best friend and confidant, later advising him on the most diplomatic way to present his theory of natural selection and establish his primacy over Wallace. Huxley (another close friend of Hooker’s ) was, with him, Darwin’s strongest supporter. Fitch illustrated his work (until a dispute over pay ended the relationship), while Gray (a professional colleague) and Galton were both close friends.