Sir Arthur Hill, KCMG

No. 3760, NovEMBER 22, 1941' NATURE 619 OBITUARIES Sir Arthur Hill, K.C.M.G., F.R.S. the time of his death an entirely new revision of the HE tragic death of Sir Arthur Hill, director of genus Nototriche to be illustrated by an elaborate T the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in a riding series of drawings. accident on November 3, is not only a disaster for the The appointment to Kew as assistant director Gardens, but also a great loss to the many societies, 1mder Sir David Prain we,s made in 1907. Hill was institutions and Government departments of which allotted a number of routine duties including the he was the chief representative of official botany for editorship of the Kew Bulletin, but in spite of these Great Britain. The twenty-odd years during which he was able to continue research and he published he was director saw a tremendous advance in the several taxonomic revisions and other papers. He progress of botanical science in all its branches, and took a share in the preparation of the great African it was ·natural that Kew should play a prominent part Floras published from Kew, namely "The Flora in many of the activities characteristic of this period. Capensis" and "The Flora of Tropical Africa". For Arthur William Hill was born on October ll, both of these he elaborated the difficult family 187 5, and was the only son of Daniel Hill, of Watford. Santalacere, which entailed careful dissection of small H e was educated at Marlborough and at King's and inconspicuous flowers, and for "The Flora College, Cambridge, where h e obtained a first class Capensis" he prepared (in collaboration with Pra.in) in both Part I and Part II of the Natural Sciences the article on the Gentiana.cere. Tripos, and later took the degree of Sc.D. He was On Sir David Prain's r etirement in 1922, Hill elected a fellow of King's College in 1901 and became became director. Some years after his appointment dean in 1907, and since 1932 had been an honorary he was successful in obtaining what was to prove of fellow. He was University lecturer in botany from 1905 immense value to Kew for the strengthening of ties until1907. During the War of 1914-18 he was placed and the broadening of outlook, namely additional on the special list as adviser on horticulture to the funds and facilities for travel by members of the Imperial War Graves Commission and held the rank scientific staff. These came in the form of grants of Captain from 1917. He was elected a fellow of the from the Empire Marketing Board. In this enterprise ·Linnean Society in 1908 and a fellow of the Royal he was stimulated and assisted by the boundless Society in 1920. In 1926 he r eceived the honour of energy of T. F. Chipp who had succeeded him as C.M.G., and that of K.C.M.G. in 1931. assistant rliref'tor. Fill hiTPR <J lf took full advantage of Hill was attracted to botany by a classical master the opportunity and visited Australia, New Zealand at his school, the late Edward Meyrick, F.R.S., who and Malaya, and, on another occasion, South Africa was also an enthusiastic naturalist. At Cambridge and Rhodesia, after which he attended the Con he carne under the inspiring genius of Marshall Ward, . ference of Directors of Agriculture of East Africa and later had the advantage of assisting Walter held at Amani in Tanganyika and visited Kenya · Gardiner in his work on the continuity of the proto and uganda. In all these tours he was able to plasm between adjacent plant-cells. His admiration promote the study of the native flora and vegetation for Gardiner's manipulative skill comes out in the and to improve the relations which K ew already had obituary notices he has so recently written (see with Government departments and herbaria through NATURE of October 18, p. 462). Ifill continued this out the Empire. The result of his visits and of those line of research independently, and his contributions, of the scientific staff led, among other things, to an "The Histology of the Sieve-tubes of Pinus" (1901), enormous increase in the amount of material reaching and "The Histology of the Sieve-tubes of the Angio the Herbarium for identification. With the aid of sperms" (1906), were two of his most important grants from the Marketing Board, additional staff papers and may be regarded as the classic English was recruited; but to this day a great accumulation accounts in this line of investigation. remains to be worked out. The two wings composing After taking part in the Bisiker expedition to the Herbarium were already crowded to excess and Iceland, Hill visited the high Andes of Peru and after repeated attempts, extending over several years, :Bolivia in 1903 and this e:J-.t>edition probably made a Hill succeeded in obtaining sanction for the erection greater impression on him than all the rest of his of a new wing. world-wide travels. He was particularly struck by A very successful enterprise which he inaugurated the dwarf rosette and cushion plants-a modification in association with the Forestry Commission was the displayed in very many families-which are abundant acquisition of about fifty acres of land at Bedgebury on the Andes, and of these he selected after his return for the purpose of forming a national collection of the members of the Malvacere, with their remarkable conifers, especially of those genera which did not variation in leaf-form, as a subject for detailed flourish at Kew. His active support of the transplant On these he published, some years experiments and genetical work carried out at later, "An Account of the Acaulescent Species of Potterne showed further his sympathy in branches of ;Malvastrum" and "A Revision of the Genus Noto botany which were not in his own line. triche". Many new species of these curious plants The Kew tradition of providing Colonial Floras have since been discovered, and Hill, who never was fully maintained under Hill's directorate. The .ceased to be fascinated by them, was planning at publication of the Graminere for the unfinished © 1941 Nature Publishing Group 620 NATURE NOVEMBER 22, 1941, VOL. 148 "Flora of Tropical Africa" was continued and an 1924 urging the need of a complete botanical survey entirely new work "The Flora of West Tropical of the Empire was opportune and noteworthy. Africa" was initiated and completed. His interests To the Gardens themselves Hill became deeply were, however, not confined to the continent of attached, and he carried out a number of improve Africa. Of the Indian Flor&s, he supervised the ments, some of them being on a considerable scale. publication of much of the "Flora of the Madras His highly developed artistic sense was revealed in Presidency" and was recently in correspondence as all these changes as it was also i;n his horticultural to the preparation of a final part of the "Flora of the interests generally. He served on the Council of the Upper Gangetic Plain". His visit to Trinidad had Royal Horticultural Society and on many of its given him an interest in the vegetation of the West committees, and, since 1934, had edited the Botanical Indies and under his sponsorship also it was arranged Magazine for the Society. In 1919 he edited the in 1928 that the drafts of the new Flora of Trinidad interesting memoir of that great horticulturist and Tobago should be checked at Kew after prepara Canon Henry Nicholson Ellacombe, of Bitton. He tion in the Colony, and he had himself during the worked regularly with his own hands in his private· last few years prepared the accounts of certain garden and was always ready to encourage the good families-the Sapotacere and Convolvulacere among amateur. others. Repeated attempts to secure funds for a Riding was a relaxation he greatly enjoyed and Flora of British Guiana were unsuccessful, but Hill had retained from his Cambridge days. He would greatly stimulated the study of the flora of this often say that so long as he could have a horse and Colony by arranging for an expert systematist from ride a bicycle he would not buy a car. He was a the Herbarium staff to pay visits there, and a number man of very high and rigid principles and a devout of papers on the flora have already appeared. churchman. , He had an intense interest in church Although Hill worked on systematic problems he architecture and was a generous benefactor to the was not attracted to taxonomy for its own sake and church he regularly attended. A love and apprecia still less when it involved investigation into past tion of art and music also foun.d a place in his busy history or the unravelling of involved nomenclature life, while the genial hospitality of his official resi and botanical errors. Taxonomy appealed to him dence was known to botanists and others from all as the arrangement of the phenomena presented by parts of the world. Fastidious in his tastes and often morphology. The cushion plants of the Andes, somewhat aloof, he was truly sympathetic and kind the curious aquatic umbellifer Lilreopsis, the bulbous hearted. His intimate friends were few and these species of Peperomia, the trimorphism in the flowers held him in the deepest regard and affection. of Oxalis tuberosa, or the strange development of the For Kew the loss is very great. He h:,ld the balance basal auricles or the leaves of a southern Caltha, almost perfectly between the inte ests of the Gardens attracted him instantly and led sooner or later to the and those of the Herbarium, Museums and Labora production of papers.

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