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RBG Kew, Directors' letters, vol. LXXV, Australian and Pacific letters 1859-65, letter no. 120. 59.12.17
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Dendrobium gracilicaule
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Dendrobium gracilicaule
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Preferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to William Hooker, 1859-12-17. 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//letters/1850-9/1859/59-12-17-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026
Melbourne bot. & zool gardens
17. Dec. 59
My very dear Sir William
I heard lately from Dr Hooker of your protracted illness & sincerely trust, that providence
will have granted for the sake of all of us, to you the fullest restoration of your
health & that you may enjoy a long & serene evening after the long & labourious day
of life. I write not these lines to you to entice you to write to me, for I am sorry
to see any of your moments taken up for my sake, but I would not let the earliest
opportunity pass, to thank you and through you also Drs Lindley & Hooker for their
kindness of granting me such an illustrious sponsorship for my candidature of R.S.,
in which Sir Roderick Murchison with his usual urbanity & kindness is, I think, likely
to join.
—
1
M's nomination to the Royal Society, dated 12 January 1860 was signed 'from general
knowledge' by John Bennett, John Lindley and Edward Brayley, and from 'personal knowledge'
by William Hooker, Joseph Hooker, William Harvey and Robert Wight. M was not elected
in the ballot on 7 June 1860 but was elected in the ballot of 6 June 1861 when Roderick
Murchison, Thomas Bell, Charles Darwin, George Frere and James Martin were additional
signatories to his nomination (nomination certificate in this edition as M60-01-12).
I thought of being able to send you the 9 No of my fragmenta by this mail,
but the printing of the last pages is not completed in time, but by next mail I hope
to send the whole first vol. complete with 10 plates & index. The very excellent Asa
Gray has indulgently criticised it,
& I think the rep[o]rtorial form of this publication is good. — Mr Oldfield has returned
from his W. Australian tour & I hope to send you soon a set of his specimens.
2
B59.12.01.
3
A. Gray (1859): 'The British California in the southern hemisphere, — more enlightened
and more spirited than our own, — has officially organized and promoted scientific
research from the first. The colony has not only its own Philosophical Institute,
publishing memoirs of high character, but its Botanic Garden, Museum and Herbarium,
under the charge of a Government Botanist, the able and indefatigable Dr. Mueller.
Nor do they confine the energies of this officer to the Victoria Colony, but spared
him to accompany, as botanist, the recent exploration by Capt. Gregory of the northern
part of the great Australian continent, where an extensive and interesting herbarium
was gathered. A most enthusiastic and industrious botanist himself, Dr. Mueller awakes
the interest and stimulates the activity of others; and vast collections, abounding
in novelties, are rapidly accumulating in his hands. He has already published numerous
scattered papers, in Germany, England and Australia. The publication now commenced
has the advantage of a more convenient connected form, and contains the characters
of new genera and species, and rectifications of those published before, with important
critical remarks &c.'
Possibly my report for 1859
will also come by next mail.
4
B60.01.01.
With the sincerest
attachement to you
& Dr Hooker,
[dear] Sir William
Yours
Ferd Mueller.
I have despatched a collector
to the alps of New South Wales, which I believe were neither visited by A. C.
nor any other botanist. Mr Hill writes that one of his plants of Dendrob.
gracilicaule bore 167 spikes!
5
Herman Beckler. See B60.01.01.
6
Allan Cunningham.
7
Dendrobium.