May 28/ 67.
Dear Hector
Thanks for your note & the interesting slips. Haast had told me of your dislocated
shoulder - I am very pleased that Haast always speaks so warmly of you. I had always
dreaded jealousy on his part, not unnatural under the circumstances: — & that "puir
body" Mueller, in Victoria, is so devoured of vanity and jealousy of Colonial notoriety
that I feared his N.Z. countryman might be rather touchy at least. But Haast seems
to be a really good fellow & I am delighted that he is FR.S. the very year after you.
Mueller is a most extraordinary man is
will & luck are indomitable but he has blasted his reputation by insatiable greed
of glory & hasty descriptions (bad & worse) of endless plants all to catch the priority
of nomenclature. He & I always get on well, & all the better from my always giving
him my mind, but really it is deplorable to see a man of worth, talent & astonishing
perseverance absolutely feeding on his own reputation; he is now dying for a
knighthood
, which I have urged all in my little power, & hope he may get it;
but I feel humiliated as a scientific man in having to represent another as coveting
such a bauble. I see Haast sports a foreign title, & have dropped him a delicate hint,
a propos of Mueller.
I am writing to Mr Dickens a propos of his
, which I cannot make out without specimens. I fear there are some bad species in
that genus already & it would not do to found a new one on a drawing! of one specimen.
I have done little but write letters for months & go to Paris where I go again on
Saturday.
So no more at present from your ever [...]
Jos D Hooker
I announced the boxes by last mail, the plants are now potted off & looking remarkably
well. I wish you could get a lot of seed of
& plant it in the Earth of a Wards case.
I cannot for the life of me make out on what you & Buchanan
found your distinctions between Cord.
indivisa of Dusky Bay & N. Island. Buchanans valuable papers on Mt Egmont (what a
sell that Mt is) & Marlborough I will send to Linnaean.
