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RBG Kew, Kew Correspondence, Australia, Mueller,1858-70, un-numbered folio after f. 44. 59.10.15

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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker, 1859-10-15. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/59-10-15>, accessed April 8, 2025

Melbourne bot. & zoolog. Garden,
15. Oct. 1859.
My dear Dr Hooker
Only last night I received Mr Pamplins consignment of books pr "Exodus" containing also the fascicles of the Flora Tasmanica,
1
J. Hooker (1860); the latest fascicle that could have been included, 9, was published on 16 August 1859 (TL2).
which you were so very kind to send & for which I beg to tender you my grateful acknowledgement. I shall give now my uncoloured copy away to one of the many botanical correspondents I have in this part of the world.
The parcel for Mr Adamson is to be delivered to him this day. I regret to state that he is in a most unlucky position now, & that all his plans hitherto' have failed. I put myself in communication about him with the Governor of South Australia, but when I was requested to furnish his adress & desired him to present himself personally such was his modest timidity, that he did not go. At present I have felt happy to relieve him twice temporary of financial embarrassment.
2
Frederick Adamson described his lack of success in the goldfields, and his attempts at seeking work with a pastoralist, in a letter to Joseph Hooker, 17 October 1859 (RBG Kew, letters to J. Hooker, vol. 1, ff. 57-8), commenting 'Dr Mueller has been a very kind friend to me, he has twice advanced me a £5 and I trust to receive a remittance from home shortly to repay him: being a stranger to him it is to your friendship that I owe his consideration I am sure. He wrote me lately "why do you not take advantage of Sir William Hooker's recommendation of you to the S. Australian Governor" — now I have no reason, except the expence of going to Adelaide, perhaps without any result, & a painful diffidence in asking favours; especially as I could not really answer the simple question Norman Simpson [the pastoralist] asked me "but well what can you do"?' See also M to F. Adamson, 8 June 1858.
I wrote some time since, that I should be proud to join the society, in which you hold the high & well deserved position so near to Newton’s chair.
3
Joseph Hooker was made a Vice President of the Royal Society in 1857. See Proceedings of the Royal Society (1859), p. 66.
As President of a large & flourishing scientific society, I may perhaps [be] deemed worthy to join your ranks. The election would be pleasing more yet to the phil. Institute than to myself, & you will be aware that only Wallich previously enjoyed holding the chair as a foreigner in a british scientific assembly.
I have some years since furnished Mr Berkely on his previously through Mr Kippist obtained promise to return them, all my fungi.
4
See M to W. Hooker, 9 May 1855.
But altho' I have several times reminded him of his pledge, I have received no answer. Would you be so friendly to ask the Rev Gentleman to return them (no matter whether examined or not) to Mr Pamplin, as they are public property now. I imagine the great Mycologist is so overwhelmed with the work on more valuable collections, that there is no hope of seeing my contribution elucidated & I [would] hand it over to another mycologist for the [Flora]
My Flora
5
B62.03.03.
is now printed as far as
Capparideae

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. The
Cruciferae

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have given me much trouble, & the limitation of genera is difficult in the extreme. Hutchinsia I have in part transferred to Capsella & in part to
Thlaspi

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after Koch & [Meyer] partial [suggestion]
Monoploca

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is most assuredly nothing else than a section of
Lepidium

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!
Capsella procumbens

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has incumbent cotyledons, as Koch has already rectifying stated against D.C.
6
W. Koch (1843-5), vol. 1, p. 79.
If the seeds are macerated, the embryo is easily evolved from the testa & than the arrangement of the cotyledons even better seen as by transverse section. By this means it is also easily seen, that the sutural line of the cotyledons extends all around the base of the seeds in many
Lepidium

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s, quite as much as in Monoplaca! The folding of the cotyledons of the latter being more accidental than [frequent] Has
Lepidium Virginicum

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really accumbent cotyledons?; all my specimens are destitute of ripe fruits.
I am now engaged on the 8. No. of my Fragmenta
7
B59.11.01.
— and am anxiously awaiting the index of the India-Australian species to ascertain what actually is new of my northern plants,
8
See J. Hooker to M, 20 December 1858.
& to publish them in the Fragmenta. The first volume, with index & a few illustrations will be ready at the end of the year.
For the Flora of Victoria
9
B62.03.03.
I have now 27 plates ready, one illustration for nearly each order. Coloring in Victoria is out of the question.
Considering the endless forms which
Cardamine parviflora

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is apt to [display] in, I have the greatest misgivings about your
Hutchinsia Australis

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as a species. —
Very many thanks also for the Syrian plants, which I owe to your kindness.
The VIII No of Fragm will contain the singular
Dendrobium pungentifolium

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. The VII brought D. gracilicaule, which Mr Hill considers [for] [...]
10
illegible.
D. speciosum, having spotted flowers & uninervous racemes as many as 167 on one individual plant once counted!
I have described the
Dammara robus

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ta C. Moore in the pharmac. transactions.
11
B60.10.01, p. 174.
It is almost if not wholly identical according to Lamberts figure with D. orientalis!
12
See A. Lambert (1832), vol. 1, tab. 39; there were multiple editions of this work but the 1832 edition is cited as it was held at the Public Library in Melbourne by 1861 (The catalogue of the Melbourne Public Library for 1861, on-line at http://handle.slv.vic.gov.au/10381/243985), and the Library’s copy is known to have been used by M; see A. Tulk to M, 17 December 1870.
Would you kindfully ask prof. Lindley, whether the
Dodonaea bursarifolia

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Behr & Mueller is identical with any of Mitchells species, my set of mitchellian plants being incomplete.
13
Would you kindfully ... incomplete. is marked by a cross in black ink in the left margin.
Ever most regardfully
& gratefully
yours
Ferd Mueller.
Many thanks for the reprints of the disertation of Eucalypti.
14
B58.11.01.