Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 63.11.01

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Joseph Hooker to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1863-11-01. 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/1860-9/1863/63-11-01-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
MS black-edged.
Kew Nov. 1/63.
My dear Mueller
I have several letters to acknowledge & to thank you for, but a series of heavy domestic afflictions in my own & my wife's family
2
Hooker's father-in-law, J. S. Henslow, died in May 1861; his niece, Anne McGilvray, aged 11, in August 1862; then in 1863 a favourite Aunt Henslow, eldest sister of Hooker's wife Frances, followed by his own daughter, Maria Elizabeth (Minnie) on 28 September 1863, aged six. See Allan (1967), passim.
have thrown much sorrow & much business on my hands. Nor am I yet free, as my eldest boy
3
William Henslow Hooker.
is just recovering from scarlet fever, & my mother is lying now ill with the same. My father happily is perfectly well.
I was grieved to hear of the damp having got to your returned collections,
4
See M to W. Hooker, 8 June 1863.
& can assure you that this must have happened after they left the Herbarium; we have no damp room in the whole house, none that are not full of plants, & I saw your collections packed in a perfectly dry state. I have shown your letter to Bentham & Black & Helmsly
5
Allan Black, Hemsley?
who assisted in the packing; & they truly observe, that if packed damp here, they would have reached you hopelessly rotted & past doing any-thing with — As it is I am excessively sorry for it, as there is nothing we can do but pack them in tin, in a perfectly dry state.
I should have sent you the enclosed
6
Not identified.
a month ago, but have been quite thrown off my work.
Bentham is progressing with the
Leguminosae

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& has got past the
Genisteae

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&c.
I am busy with the New Zealand Flora,
7
J. Hooker (1864-7).
but have done very little to it for 2 months. The Phanogamic part is however nearly finished — Gen Plant.
8
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83).
is not quite at a stand still, for Bentham is at the
Leguminosae

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for it, & I have done
Rosaceae

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, Saxif.
9
Saxifrageae

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.
Lythrarieae

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, Onagrar.
10
Onagrarieae

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.
Drosereae

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,
11
Droseraceae.
Combret.,
12
Combretaceae

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.
Rhizophoreae

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, &
Halorageae

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& allied orders, so that some progress is made you see.
My Father desires his kindest regards.
Do you take the "Natural History Review" it is becoming a standard work, & contains a long Review of the Australian Flora, in the October number.
13
Included in a general discussion of the Colonial Floras project, Natural history review, vol. 3, 1863, pp. 497-507.
Ever most sincerely yr
Jos D Hooker