Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 75.03.10a

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Joseph Hooker to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1875-03-10 [75.03.10a]. 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/1870-9/1875/75-03-10a-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

1
MS black-edged; Hooker's wife died in November 1874.
Kew March 10 /75.
My dear Mueller
The enclosed note
2
In the file, Hooker's letter to M of 30 November 1874 is enclosed in this letter.
was written to you 3 months ago & should have been sent off at the time with the list of Howe Island Plants
3
List not found.
— but matters with me soon got into utter confusion owing to the multiplicity of domestic matters I had to attend to, the accumulated arrears of work, & the fact of my Private Secretary having left me just previously.
My work has indeed so accumulated, & my wifes aid was so necessary that I have informed the Office of Works that I can no longer overtake my duties, & I am to be provided with an Official Secretary very soon
Thanks for your Xmas letter and note about Junci
4
See M to J. Hooker, 25 December 1874 (in this edition as 74-12-25a).
I have however now quite abandoned British Botany.
No Eucalyptus will stand at Kew except Polyanthemos! — I cannot make you understand that our chilled damp winter soil, & cold long springs, are totally opposed to Australian plants, even Alpines. It is not winters cold that does it, but damp & spring cold together
I shall indeed be glad of a clump of Gymnoschoenus adustus .
5
See M to J. Hooker, 2 December 1874, for suggestions of what Eucalypts might grow outdoors at Kew, and the offer of a clump of
Gymnoschoenus adustus

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.
One of your giant
Cycas

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has sprouted & so I do not despair of the other.
6
See J. Hooker to M, 6 May 1873.
Very sincerely Yr
Jos D Hooker