16/8/79.
Let me express to you my best thanks, dear Sir Joseph, for your generous felicitation
to the
unexpected
high distinction, which the grace of her Majesty conferred on me.
A congratulation from
you
is particularly gratifying. That Mr Bentham did not
at once
attain to the same degree, made me quite sad at the time, after his 60 years working
on plants systematically. When I think of it, what a lenght of time!, almost as much
already as your fathers of unperishable memory. When I studied in Kiel in 1846, I
went during the autumn vacation to Sylt & Föhr on the West coast of Schleswig to examine
more closely its vegetation, gathering
(which you have now also in your Students Flora)
and many other rare plants. When I came back, the first word, Professor Nolte said,
you have missed Bentham visit!
So it was, he then came to Kiel also on his continental tour to gather every then
possible information on the
for the 12th vol. of D.C.
— and now, he is still as fresh and labourious mentally as then, when I was a youngster.
—
It is really very good of you, that you have spent some of your
precious time
to see my W.A. Forest-report
through the press, which thus obtains additional value, which ought to be acknowledged
publicly; this will be done in the decades of the Eucalyptography, of which the 4th
is nearly ready, though through delays of the lithographer not even the first decade
is actually out.
At last a
forest bill
is to be introduced here,
but our best forests are by this time quite demolished. I preached here to deaf ears
on this like on so many other subjects.
So, some years ago,
I induced
Mr Krichauff, a member of the Adelaide legislature, and an University friend of mine,
to bring in
there
a Forest-bill, which he did and out of which arose at once then in Adelaide a proper
Forest-Department,
for which latterly Mr J. E. Brown has done such excellent work.
I will take advantage of every opportunity to examine
e in a fresh state, but the garden here is no longer devoted to science-culture nor
accessible to me, and the Saltbush-desert commences only 150 miles from here. In the
same way I am
daily hampered
for forest-investigations, for which I want the rich collection of
living trees
, established by me in the bot Garden, including numerous species of Eucalypts, many
of which however since destroyed by ignorance and in senseless changes. I shall
not
be able to do anything even for the Sydney or Melbourne great Exhibitions;
as not even my laboratory has been restored to me, & I am provided with no means
of any other kinds to share in the Exhibitions.
With every feelings of grateful regards
your
Ferd. von Mueller
Have you noticed, that in the genus Poranthera, species occur with
opposite
leaves (e.g. P. microphylla); perhaps you like to take notice of it in the "
genera
".
What a
splendid work
; I hope your & Mr Bentham's united labors will bring it in a few years to conclusion.
I can furnish you with some addenda, if you like, for any supplemental notes in the
last volume.
