Ferdinand von Mueller

25/3/65

The last mail, venerable and dear Sir William, brought me your letter of 26 jan.,

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Letter not found.

kind like all others which in a long and carefully kept array I have received from you and simultaneously the Wellesley brought the ferns back to me accompanied by a present which will ever throw a ray of cheerfulness into my study room, your picture with its noble outlines.

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Picture not found.

I shall cherish it always, it will bring daily recollections of your kindnesses, should this not be the fact already.

The Leichhardt-movement has absorbed some of my sparetime since Christmas.

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The Ladies' Leichhardt Search Committee.

It is safe and will become a cosmopolitan one. It is too lofty, as that I should not have withdrawn rightly some time for its initiation from other engagements; moreover a dear most gifted girl beaming in the beauty of youth, represents Leichhardts and my church and our nationality on the Ladies Committee, a young Lady of high and independent social standing.

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Brown-May & Maroske (1994) identify the girl as Rebecca Nordt. Other members of the committee were: Maria Bunny, Jane Cutts, Sarah Harker, Elvina Rintel, Mary Ann Fraser, Eliza Bromby, Margaret F. Thomas, Margaret Hetherington, Mary E. Wilkie, Jane W. Embling, Elizabeth Testar, Sarah [Horwitz].

Of her genius you may form a conception from the fact that at the age of ten years she plaid before Sir Henry Barkly in charity concerts the most difficult parts of Norma. She with a catholic Lady,

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E. Tierney.

designated by the Bishop, are the joint Hon Secretaries of the Committee. All 7 great Church Sections are represented by two delegates.

If the Ladies of Britain could aid them, it would be glorious to the cause as well as to themselfes.

Some curious plants from N.E. Australia are under the process of description. More about them, si fata velint,

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if the fates are willing.

by next mail. I hope your synopsis filicum

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W. Hooker & Baker (1865-8)

will not prevent you from enhancing the value of your species filicum

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W. Hooker (1846-64).

by a supplemental volume.

I had a most kind letter from Sir Dav. Brewster by last mail, also from Sir Edw Bulwer Lytton.

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Letters not found.

It is elevating to me to be thus in contact with men whose names like yours have been before my mental eye since the dawn of my childhood and which shed light on my often difficult & dark path of life. I have still often to sustain injustice, and want of generosity, and both give me always deep pain, discouraging me often for a while to do anything.

However my path is also in this showery life occasionally brightened So I was much touched by Prince Alberts illustrious brother allotting to me a high rank in the Knightorder of the Ernestinian House.

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Ernst, Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, had conferred membership in the Ducal Order of the Ernestinian House on 5 January 1865. For the background to M's award see A. Petermann to M, 27 April 1864 (in this edition as 64-04-27a), and M to A. Petermann, 26 August 1864 (both also published in Voigt (1996)). See also Lucas (2013a).

I can appreciate such gracious generosity; and though I have never striven for it but only for science sake, far too little all along watching with wordly prudence my own interests, I perceive that these honors are an equivalent for the fortune I have spent in prosecuting research and aiding in distress & charities, and they may have such an influence on my future life as to give me still a dignified domestic happiness. These tokens of grace stand also in marked contrast to the icy coldheartedness by which I am often chilled through those, who cannot raise their minds above the level of triviality and selfishness.

But no, it is not my intention to boast in glorifications before you. I have not sought them, I could have had them tenfold more if I strove for them & had withdrawn from support of poor in distress & from science the private means I lavished often injudiciously on them, had my objects been worldy gain. When I was seeking to rank in the Society over which Newton once presided it was because it gave me as a functionary in an official position support.

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M sought election to the Royal Society of London. See M to J. Hooker, 15 October 1859. He was proposed on 12 January 1860, 'not elected' on 7 June 1860, but 'elected' on 6 June 1861; see Royal Society Certificate of candidate for election, 12 January 1860 (in this edition as M60-01-12).

As private man I should have never sought for the position, and this is almost the only instance in which I could overcome my private feeling to do so. In most instances I was not even corresponding with any members of the academies or Societies, in which to me spontaneously was conceded a honorary seat.

And should I have wishes yet for any special favors, they arise from the persuasion, that such will better my social position, perhaps establish my domestic happiness & facilitate by strenghtening support my scientific labors. —

I was glad to learn from Prof Owen, that my contributions of material towards the knowledge of the foecundation of the Monotremata has fairly settled the correctness of his oviviviparous theory of the development of these extraordinar creatures.

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See M to R. Owen, 25 August 1864 (in this edition as 64-08-25c), and associated notes on dissections of echinda specimens; response from Owen not found. For details of the work of Owen on the reproduction of the monotremes, see Gruber (1991).

So you see between extra-work in zoology, geography, acclimation medicine & many other things my few spare hours are fully occupied.

The fern-plate is beautiful.

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The plate has not been identified.

The error about

Anthrophyum

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I corrected since. I agree with all you say in your ripe judgements of species & may hope that the views expressed in the preface to the work [up]on the Chatham vegetation will be shared by you.

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B64.10.02.

I was tempted to send under Miss Hodgsons care an other little case of plants home pr "Norfolk" It is not bad packing that destroyed my former ones, for I should find nothing easier than send Araucariae & other good travelling plants, but it is not easy to send Australian plants accustomed to a dry airy atmosphere in close or open cases home, & those I sent, and which would be acceptable novelties to your conservatories, are not generally producing seeds. — Of seeds I have sent since the last 12 years enough, that had Mr [J] Smith been able to afford space for them at least several hundred species, such as Acaciae &c could have been raised. At Vienne & elsewhere numerous species flowered, but these establishments have not the opportunity of illustrating novelties like you in your magnificent a truely unique Botan. Magazine, a work that becomes from month to month more valuable & never should be discontinued.

Let me remain, dear & beloved Sir William, your ever candid & attached

I lectured just before an agricultural audience on the

Uredo Rubigo

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,

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B65.04.05, the text of M's lecture on Rust in cereals, delivered in Sandhurst [now Bendigo] on 22 March 1865.

having devoted some time to the investigations of its ravages; it is a [vexed] question, needing much research yet; but I have spoken warningly against the spoliatian

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M's concern is with the exhaustion of soils as a result of cropping. See B65.09.01.

system of agriculture and sewage.