The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Decr 1 /71 ¶ Dear Mueller ¶ ¶ Let me congratulate you heartily on your release from the worries and anxieties of your anomalous position, ¶ & next on the accession of your dignities which though not...

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Physical location:

RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 71.12.01a

Plant names

Apocynacea
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Calceolaria
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Geranium
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Mikania
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Solaneae
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Todea
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Preferred Citation:

Joseph Hooker to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1871-12-01 [71.12.01a]. 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/71-12-01a>, accessed September 11, 2025

See also M to J. Hooker, 6 September 1871 (in this edition as 71-09-06a).

Decr 1 /71

Letter embossed with emblem of Royal Gardens Kew.

Dear Mueller

Let me congratulate you heartily on your release from the worries and anxieties of your anomalous position,

See M to J. Hooker, 29 August 1871, in this edition as 71-08-29b.

& next on the accession of your dignities which though not acknowledged by the laws of this country must be very gratifying to you as testimonies of the appreciation of your countrymen, that are seldom awarded to Aliens.

M had been enobled by the King of Württemberg, see J. von Wachter to M, 12 July 1871, and M to von Wächter, 8 October 1871.

I am not at all up, in these matters & scientific men in this country are not fond of letters & orders except when given for direct services to the state we serve. These are however matters of personal feeling.

A thousand thanks my good friend for your kindness & consideration about the s Tree ferns &c which I shall be most thankful for. We were advised the other day of a lot of Tree ferns having arrived from you for us in the Docks, & send a cart for them but found that they were for another party.

I shall ask Booth to send you a box of rare trees with clay round the roots if he thinks they will travel well.

The large sent by M to Hooker in February 1871 (See M to J. Hooker, 9 February 1871 (in this edition as 71-02-09b)) and was sent onwards to John Booth's nursery at Flottbeck, near Hamburg.

I do wish that I could figure more of your things but the Gardeners & public here care not a penny for the favorites of their fathers, & my especial pets my Cape & Australian plants. Nothing goes down but s, , & s on one hand or foliage plants & orchids on the other. You will see by the Magazine

i.e. Curtis's botanical magazine, of which Hooker was editor.

how hard I try to introduce a better class of things — but the Magazine itself is mortal it lives by pleasing — the taste of the public — & my constant fear is of its being cut out by mere florists books that sell cent per cent compared to its sale.

The will appear soon in the Magazine.

J. Hooker (1865-1904), vol. 98, t. 5954.

I have long since ordered Fitch to draw it, but his hands are tremendously full.

You ask about Cundarango (the latest Shibboleth!) — some say it is a , but later accounts call it an . Nothing is really known in fact about it.

‘A plant which has lately been greatly vaunted …as a remedy for cancer’, Journal of botany, British and foreign, vol. 10, 1872, p. 63; see also editorial comment in Nature, vol. 4, 1871, p. 514, Destruge (1872) and Moller (1872). See also M to J. Hooker, 6 September 1871.

Ever sincerely Yr

Jos D Hooker