Ferdinand von Mueller

Easter /1876.

1

Easter Day was 16 April in 1876.

Let me thank you for your noble letter,

2

Letter not found.

dear Prof Gray. Like yourself I find, that if any letters are left unanswered at once , they are not likely ever to be answered at all; for as a punishment of the remissness the heap of unanswered letters becomes then more formidable every day and I give it up as a bad job in despair. However the excuses of the first Napoleon

3

Napoleon Bonaparte. 'Some generals demanded reinforcements, money, promotion, etc. By not opening their letters Bonaparte was spared the unpleasing office of refusing' (Bourrienne (1891), vol. 1, p. 65).

in these respects do not apply to so great man as yourself. I have sent you the nineth volume of the fragmenta,

4

The last two fascicles of vol. 9 (i.e. B75.12.01 and B75.13.01) were published in December 1875, and copies of the bound volume (B76.01.09) issued in January 1876.

also prints on Papuan plants

5

Probably B75.11.01 and B76.04.01, the latter of which was published on 7 April 1876.

&c The reprint of the article in the Victorian Volume for the Philadelphia Exhibition

6

Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876; the article in question was B75.09.03.

might be useful for your southern states in a pamphlet form. It ought to pay any printer. Perhaps you deem these poor efforts of mine worthy of a few friendly words of encouragement in your journal or Academy.

7

Gray published a brief notice of the 9th volume of M's Fragmenta and early parts of his Descriptive notes on Papuan plants (B75.11.01, B76.04.01?) in American journal of science, series 3, vol. 12, 1876, p. 156.

Of course I do not wish any retraction of the remarks made at the Brit Assoc. by a most venerable and revered man, but after my publication is publicly stigmatized by him as almost worthless or useless, I cannot possibly send it to him any longer with any selfrespect.

8

See also M to A. Gray, 7 August 1875, and M to G. Bentham, 13 March 1877. In Bentham's address to the 1874 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science (Bentham (1874)), he had called for more regional Floras and critical monographs of orders or genera, and had made disparaging remarks about 'detached or miscellaneous specific descriptions', citing M's Fragmenta among his examples of such 'comparatively useless' works.

What a grand completion will be your Californian work for the exhaustive volumes on your E. states.

9

Probably Brewer, Watson & A. Gray (1876).

I trust you will live to include the Mexican Flora. Is there any publication, from which I could glean knowledge of the technical value of the Mexican Oaks, Pines, &c &c

10

See also M to L. Haynald, 24 January 1882, and M to L. Haynald, 22 November 1882.