Kew July 11 /69
My dear Mueller
Many thanks for yours of 19/5/69 this moment received & for the promise of the King
of
s
— what a figure it will cut at Kew! I saw 2 superb ones at St Petersburgh.
You shall have the spores of our Ferns, & a case of live ones, as soon as we get a
foreman; our late excellent foreman of that department has just invalided. I fear
however that you will not find the Ferns quite so easy to grow from spores & cultivate
as you anticipate, from the great difficulty in such establishments as your's & our's
of keeping up a surprisingly good atmosphere & shade.
We on the contrary find
easy enough
of culture if we could only get them
but of the hundreds of Australian species of the Order, we have not a score!
We have now 3 species of Xanthorrhoea growing,
pumila
from you,
4 angulata
from the North & another sp.
australis
? from Schomburgk. The two latter about 4-5 ft high.
I fear that on this side the world we think the reverse of what you do, in reference
to the debt between Kew & Melbourne.
Your Ward's cases arrive in such woeful condition & our foremen complain that your
seeds are duplicates year after year. — You send us a much better report of the condition
in which our cases reach you, though it is now
too
long since we have sent you any.— We have a case of Bamboos now establishing for
you.
I think you will find about the beginning of my taking charge that we kept you in
our debt with boxes of Orchids,
, Cacti, seeds & Ward's cases of rare plants. — but that lately we have fallen off
which is much due to the fact that for three years my own & the men's time has been
taken up with the reorganization of the Gardens, reconstruction of Houses & heating
apparatus, which has thrown us altogether out. At this moment we are constructing
220 ft of new Hot & Green houses & pulling down 4 or 5 very large old houses. You
may guess in what confusion this throws us, & how the men's time is occupied.
I can quite understand your anxiety about the Cryptog: of Australia
— & I am sure I will gladly help you, though of all the worries I know, this of Crypt.
Bot. is the greatest. The Cryptogamists cannot or will not come to Kew to work, &
yet without access to books & large Herbaria, they never can identify their species
— Poor Berkeley's health is worse & worse, though he continues working at your Fungi.
No two authors are agreed upon Hepaticae, fewer on Mosses, & as to Lichens the whole
subject is in chaos as it appears to me.
Ever sincerely yrs
Jos D Hooker.
To get the Australian Cryptogs undertaken ever will require a lengthened correspondence,
which I really cannot undertake — I am overwhelmed with Indian & Colonial correspondence
& have no time for my own works — The first thing to be done is, to select workers,
to give them an idea of how much they will have to do, how they are to do it, how
long they are to be, & what pay they are to get. A condition with all must be, that
they revise (at least) their matter at Kew. Then, when the mss is prepared, you will
want a skilled Editor to see it all through the press — who will see that there is
some uniformity in the matter, & especially in the form & style — I can give you no
idea of the trouble I had with all my Crypt Floras, to get the matter of each author
into shape.
Each author had his own notion of what should form — a description — a diagnosis
— a genus — a clavis, a species — a variety, — a tribe — an order — a family & so
forth — so too with the matter & manner of the descriptions — of synonymy, of quotations,
of giving Habitats &c &c &c. My correspondence with some of these collaborators
fills volumes
. Lastly each has his own terms to express one & the same structure & organ, & the
confusion is hence terrific.
July 15 /69.
Dear Dr Mueller
Since writing enclosed I have the Herbm looked up for the
you ask for.
Oliver finds that the species are represented by the merest scraps, & that they will
not stand being divided
even for you
: who we should most of all wish to serve
