Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne botanic Garden,

4/6/71.

Sir

It is with extreme gratification, that I acknowledge your kind communication of the 12 May, in which you apprize me of the honor, conferred on me by the New Zealand Institute in electing me one of its honorary members.

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On 6 January 1871, the New Zealand Institute elected its first nine honorary members, including M, in accordance with a newly adopted statute providing for this category of membership; see Transactions and proceedings of the New Zealand Institute, vol. 4 (1871), p. 17.

Pray assure his Excellency, your worthy President,

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Sir George Bowen.

and the members of the Institute, that I gratefully appreciate so high a mark of distinction as that of associating me with the great and illustrious men, who are my colleagues in the honorary membership. Please assure also the Institute of my readiness to aid, as far as it is within my means, in the furtherance of the objects, for which your Institution is formed. It will be a pleasurable duty to me, to provide from time to time notes on New Zealand plants for your journal, and to afford information, whenever desired, for the elucidation of your wondrously singular vegetation, or aid in the introduction of plants.

In conclusion allow me to assure you, that I regard the scientific exertions in New Zealand, as recorded in your new volume, as remarkably multifarious and extensive, and to congratulate your young union on the successes already achieved, which far exceed the results obtained in many an older colony and augurs well for the future.

Dr James Hector, FRS.,

Hon. Secretary to the N.Z. Institute