Smith (whom Hooker consulted about a rare moss) suggested he specialise in botany. Bauer taught Hooker. Banks sponsored a research journey to Iceland (Hooker’s findings were all burned in a shipboard fire), and tried to persuade him to go on to Java. Hooker, with his colleague Talbot, was pivotal in the long-term survival of Banks’ botanic gardens at Kew, which had fallen into disrepair following Banks’ death. He helped persuade Bentham not to abandon botany. Joseph Dalton Hooker was his son, who succeeded him both as eminent botanist and as director at Kew.