Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 96.06.12

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Joseph Hooker to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1896-06-12. 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/96-06-12>, accessed September 11, 2025

June 12 /96.
The Camp.
Sunningdale.
My dear Baron
I have just opened & read yours of 7th ult.
1
Letter not found.
& am much gratified by your notice of the of Fl. Brit. Ind.
2
J. Hooker (1875-97), vol. 7; pages 1-224, containing the first part of the Gramineae, were issued in April 1896 (TL2). The notice by M has not been found.
I wish that I could look at it with even equaminity, much more with satisfaction, but the further I go on the more convinced I feel that the work is only an introduction to the study of Indian Grasses, & that future observations may much modify my conclusions. Then too there are a plentiful crop of blunders, & omissions which turn up in the most unexpected places. —
Thus in the Clavis of genera several genera are absent, — of obscure things that lurked in out of the way corners of the Herbarium, or of plants which on a 3d revision demanded generic rank. — 66
Phippsia

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must go into
Catabrosa

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with
Colpodium

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(&
Dupontia

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) & go next to
Poa

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. Phragmites Madagascariensis must form a new genus,
Neyraudia

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.
The characters of 104, 105, 106 have got mixed by the printer (I suppose.) I have just sent
Poa

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,
Festuca

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&
Bromus

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to press — I gave them all to Stapf to discriminate & diagnose, as he knows European & Oriental Grasses much better than I do. — He has also done Era grostis , a very difficult task. Then as the
Bambuseae

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are all worked up by Gamble,
3
Gamble (1896). The way in which Hooker amended the material to fit his structure is explained in the introduction to the
Bambuseae

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in Hooker (1875-97), vol. 7, p. 375; Gamble's contribution, Gamble (1896a), was included in the part issued in early December 1896 (TL2), and was based on an advance copy of the journal.
& it would be folly to interfere with his work, I have only to extract his matter & put it in the form of the other genera & sp. of Brit. India & give him the credit of it all.
Banks' Journal is nearly free of the Press; a copy shall of course go to you at once.
4
Banks (1896).
It cost more labor to conclude properly than I anticipated & I have been powerfully aided by my 4th son Reginald, who is an officer in the Board of Agriculture & of a literary & mathematical turn. I hope the work will take in Australia; and give the world a higher idea of Banks than it had. There should be a monument to him in Australia.
5
See also J. Hooker to M, 2 March 1896.
The idea of giving you a musical salutation on your birthday (& mine!) charms me.
6
M appears to have mentioned to Hooker in his missing letter of 7 May 1896 that a musical event was planned for his birthday: it was given by the Possum's Musical Society on 30 June 1896 (Prahran chronicle, 4 July 1896, p. 3).
I did not know that we were co-natal as to day & month or I would have thought especially of you; & all the more as I had a Musical Jubilee too! my youngest boy Richard, atet
7
aetat [= aged]? Richard Symonds Hooker was in his 12th year, having been born on 10 January 1885 (Allan (1967)).
12, having composed a very pretty piece for me — he is almost a musical genius & delightful on the Violin, full of feeling & expression.
At last Mrs Brian has gone [out] to her husband with the children: he has just built a house for them at Coolgardie Kanowna, where he has charge of a Mine with £700 & liberty to look after others — I [now] think of all your kindness to his poor wife in her distress with most grateful feelings.
Ever my dear Baron
most sincerely yr
Jos D Hooker