Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 72.06.22

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Joseph Hooker to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1872-06-22. 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/72-06-22>, accessed September 11, 2025

1
Letter bears the embossed emblem: 'Royal Gardens Kew'.
June 22 /72.
My dear Baron
I have several letters to thank you for, which I shall now proceed to discuss.
I have already informed you of the safe arrival of the noble Tree Ferns & of our having seen to their despatch to their destinations.
2
J. Hooker to M, April 1872 (in this edition as 72-04-00)?
The noble
Dicksonia

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you have given us is pushing fronds. The
Alsophila

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not yet but we do not despair of it. It is covered with a light canvas petticoat! to keep its flanks moist & stored in the most favorable place for growth.
Our
Dicksonia

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s are the wonders of the world, all owing to my never allowing a dead frond to be removed — & the great
Todea

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retains its luxuriance, it having now some 300 fronds on it, wholly through my treatment. I have it stood in a shallow pan, surrounded with blocks of stone & ferns, backed by a layer of soil confined by cask staves.
I hope that you have passed your ordeal . I am far from the end of mine — Gladstone supports that Ayrton through thick & thin, & my friends are hitherto foiled in their attempts to get my correspondence which has been called for in both Houses of Parliament. The enclosed address will reveal to you my position, & so I need say no more.
3
Following this letter in the file are cuttings from The Times, 30 July and 9 August 1872, reporting the progress of Hooker's dispute with A. S. Ayrton, Chief Commissioner of Works. However, it is clear from the dates that these are not the address to which Hooker refers. See also MacLeod (1974).
I shall take care that when you send me the live plants named after the D. of Buckingham (whose name I forget) arrive to send his Graces Gardener their share.
4
See M to J. Hooker, 1 March 1872.
I am delighted to hear that you have more Chatham Island plants, but disappointed that they contain no more novelty.
5
See M to J. Hooker, 24 April 1872 (in this edition as 72-04-24a).
Will no one ever go to Antipodes Bounty
6
Sub-Antarctic island groups south of the Chatham Islands.
& Emerald Islands
7
A phantom island south of Macquarie Island, reported by a British sealing ship in 1821 but not found by subsequent searchers.
?
I enclose Mr Baker's answer about the Fern.
We have just lost Mr Kingston a very active assistant in the Herbarium, who has died of the rupture of a blood-vessel in the Lungs.
8
R. C. Kingston died on 21 June 1872.
Thanks for the note about arillate
Tiliaceae

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9
See M to J. Hooker, 23 March 1872.
— a fact I knew well having often examined the aril of I think
Echinocarpus

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in India — I cannot tell how I allowed such an oversight to pass in the Gen. Plant.
10
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 1, p. 228.
The
Rubiaceae

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went to press today, but will take some months to print — we can verify every quotation in the proof as well as Mss. from the works themselves.
Bentham has finished the
Euphorbiaceae

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for the Australian Flora & is now at
Calycereae

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for Gen. Plant. — the
Compositae

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are all ready for press.
Can you send us your species of
Hymenophyllum

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?
11
See also J. Hooker to M, April 1872 (in this edition as 72-04-00).
The best way is to establish them on billets of Tree fern & nail them to the top of a Ward's case of plants.
Ever very sincerely yr
Jos D. Hooker