Ferdinand von Mueller

17/10/86.

1

Annotated in blue pencil : Mr Baker, and in lead pencil and 1.12.86 [letter not found].

Unica of ferns, dear Mr Dyer, from my sendings, if they present new species, can always be kept at Kew , as they are best there, where the great normal herbarium of ferns in connection with the spec. fil. and syn. fil. exists.

2

W. Hooker (1846-64); W. Hooker & Baker (1865-8).

It is very generous of Mr Baker, to offer me participation in the naming of the little fern, of which I sent the solitary specimen, and of which the final comparison was left to him.

3

The letter with Baker’s offer has not been found, but Baker reiterated it in his annotations on the postscript of M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 2 October 1886 (in this edition as 86-10-02b).

Though I feel that I have but little claim in this respect, I thankfully accept the offer, so as to connect mine with his honored name.

4

Baker briefly described Trichomanes sayeri under his and M’s authorship in Baker (1892), p. 15.

I have had annoyance lately in the public press on account of the delay, which has arisen, in the completing of the “Key to the system of Victorian plants, according to the unfortunate Lamarckian dichotomous method.

5

See Lucas, Maroske & Brown-May (2006), pp. 46–50.

So I must lay now every thing for a while aside to satisfy the claims of the colony, from which I have my substantive support for living; and thus you and others, who are entitled to reciprocities from here, must be not too exacting, so that I may get the above mentioned onerous work first finished, otherwise my official position here may become seriously impaired, or my bodily strength, which has got already very much reduced, may fail me altogether, or by overtaxing my mind perhaps my mental faculties may give way altogether.