The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ I thank you very much, dear Dr Hooker, for your gratulation to my new rank. ¶ I attach particular value to it, as it can be shared by a ¶ Lady ¶ and thus may help me to build up, though late in ...

Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1871-81, f. 17. 72.01.00

Plant names

Alsophila
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Dicksonia
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker, 1872-01. 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/1870-9/1872/72-01-00-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

MS annotated in an unknown hand: ‘1871’. The MS has, as a letterhead, an embossed version of the arms proposed by M in his letter to von Wächter, 8 October 1871 (in this edition as 71-10-08a. The arms differ substantially from those that were granted in Karl I, King of Württemberg to M, 6 July 1871, see Home (2017). Dated to January 1872 as the earliest likely date on the basis that M could not have received the letter of congratulations from Hooker mentioned in the letter before then.

I thank you very much, dear Dr Hooker, for your gratulation to my new rank.

M was elevated to the hereditary rank of Baron of the Kingdom of Würrtemberg on 6 July 1871; J. Hooker to M, 1 December 1871 (in this edition as 71-12-01a) contains Hooker's congratulations.

I attach particular value to it, as it can be shared by a Lady and thus may help me to build up, though late in life, my domestic happiness

It was under these circumstances particularly gratifying to me that you and Mr Bentham recognized the title.

G. Bentham to M, 23 November 1871 is addressed to 'Baron Ferdinand v. Mueller'.

I think the British Government should by courtesy also recognize the rank. Remember that many of your Lords are not by strict legality entitled to the appellation; so it is with all the Governors of the many Colonies, only the Vice-Roy of India being by the strict letter of the law called Excellency, all others not so by the Government of England, though all by their local Governments.

Lord Clarendons regulations forbid only the acceptance of Orders and Medals. Thus a rank , like mine, comes not within the operations of the British Civil Service even if my Colonial Naturalisation; (which gives me no British Citizenship) could have full force.

For application to M of the rules concerning acceptance of foreign orders, see notes to M to G. Carey, 20 May 1866, and footnotes to R. Apponyi to M, 4 August 1863. A copy of Lord Clarendon's 1855 regulations was printed in Nature, 9 October 1873, p. 481, during a controversy about the propriety of British 'men of science' accepting foreign honours and wearing the insignia in ignorance of the regulations. See Lucas (2013a).

It would require an act of Parliament to give the Civil Service Regulations of the British offices legality over all British subjects in private life there and abroad. And any such new law could not be rendered retrospective .

The ferntrees, which were of such large size, as to render it worth while for you to select from them, went not by the Anglesey but by a later vessel.

Always your regardful

Ferd von Mueller

Do you want a really tall & yet.