July 26.1863.
My very dear Dr Muller
Your most welcome Packages & letters have come all safely up to the present time &
I often get some interesting Fern pickings among them. But what has pleased me most
is more perfect specimens of
& which arrived & at
the very hour
when I was sending the former fragments to be drawn & engraved. So I now have the
satisfaction of being able to add the entire stipes & Caudex.
With regard to the Genus it as with all those fronds which are densely covered with
hairs or scales as
here
& in
Gymnogramma
vestita (I am obliged to write Gramnitis & Gymnogramna) it is very difficult to trace
the exact nature of the sori. But I think it will be found referred there. I wish
however more could be found in fruit. It cannot be Achrostichaceous. It is [our] Brother
to G. vestita: one (the latter) has a rich silky covering, the other most curious
scales instead of silk. I wish your
were as novel as this. It is indeed very rare in Australia & was found by Brown in
tropical Austa. It is Pteris (Litobrochia) pedata. But pray urge Mr Bowman
to continue his Fern researches & depend upon it he will
I have a long letter from your excellent Governor.
How you will miss him, when he shall have gone to Mauritius. But he will do good
& patronize science wherever he goes — & much requires to be done in Mauritius, Madagascar
& other neighbouring Isles. In your last great package were several bundles (large
ones) of Ferns belonging to Sir Henry Barkly, from British Guiana, & Jamaica.
I have barely had time to look into them: but from
I did see they appear to be a most wretched set of specimens, miserable fragments
of species wrapped up in a most astounding quantity of paper. Your own considerable
collections of Australian Ferns look to promise better. But I can do little to them
till I have completed my Vol. 5 of Sp. Plant.
of which every word is ready for the printer & more than half the volume printed.
I wait chiefly for the plates. This has been a kind of holiday season & I am just
returned from a rather long visit to our friends in Norfolk with Lady Hooker. Mr Bentham
had great need of entire relaxation. By this time I trust the copies of Fl. Austral.
are in your hands.
I have pleasant letters from Sir John Young & Governor Daly.
A little while ago we were gratified by the prospect of soon seeing you in England.
Since I have been away Dr Hooker tells me he has heard, from some of your Melbourne
friends I believe, that your voyage is delayed. I had felt that you were on your way
or I should sooner than this have written to you. We shall know more about this: I
dispatch regularly all your parcels letters &c that come from thrgh
the Col. Office to their places of destination: among them your letter &
to Boott.
Alas before he could receive it we have letters (this morning) give the unwelcome
news of his being alarming ill & that his Physicians & family think very unfavorably
of him. How he will be missed by his great circle of acquaintance where he is loved
more than any man.
I was somewhat prepared from what Lady Smith told me in Suffolk a few days.
He & his Wife were expected there, but without alarming Lady Smith they wrote to
say that he was not able to go. This Lady Smith is the Widow of Sir Jas Smith,
& now at 92(!) is as hale, as handsome & with a mind as vigorous as when she was
40. We often see Sir Chas Nicholson. He gave a grand dinner a week ago in London at
which Dr Hooker was present. I am too old to dine out. The
parcel is attended.
Some will be analysed in England.
The family of Boott will take great care of any of your Plants that may be with him.
All your notes on the Geographical distribution of Ferns in Australia must be useful.
Your Fragmenta & Fl. Vict
are invaluable. Bentham sees all your communications & notes what he wishes to say
to you when he writes.
affectly
yours,
W. J. Hooker.
I am greatly pleased to have your Photograph.
I have figured in B. Mag. from your drawing: but necessarily reduced in size.
