Royal Gardens, Kew.
Jan. 4. 1856
My dear Dr Mueller.
Two days ago your most welcome letter of 3d Septr,2 written as you were on the point of quitting the "Monarch," to undertake your arduous journey, reached my hands & as the 7th is post day for Australia I hasten to acknowledge it. A few days ago I replied3 to your former letter, written "Off Moreton Bay",4 & sent that answer to the care of Mr Moore.5 I wrote also to Sir Wm Denison6 & now, by this post, I write to Sir Chas Hotham.7 I hope & believe that these gentlemen & our Secretary of State are all interested in your success, & I must try & keep them alive to it. I gave a decisive answer in favor of your reserving for yourself a full set of all the plants you gather. That I consider to be a sine qua non for every scientific botanical collector: if he does not deserve that he deserves nothing. I replied also to the query of Sir William Denison & M. Labouchere, our Colonial Secretary, as to whom the collections should go to in England: assuredly to Kew.8 You do quite right however to address the packages to the Colonial Office, as you have done the Box you have already (thanks to your industry) dispatched. There came to me a separate note or invoice to that effect also, & that I immediately sent to the Secretary of the Colonies,9 & they will inform me as soon as ever the Collection arrives, & I shall send for it. I dare say it will soon arrive, if it has not by this time, & depend [on]10 it, my Son & I & Bentham will soon overhaul it & then I shall have the pleasure of writing to you again. My present letter I send through the Colonial Office, because they will be sure to send it officially, & I think the more familiar your name is made there the better. I have put up for you in as small a compass as I can, extracts which I have printed from your letters, & my figures of 2 extra-Australian Proteaceae, found by our Collector in Captn Denham's ship, the Herald: —11 & also, as I see you have gathered Flagellaria indica, I have put in figure & description of a new flagella-wise plant,12 with a habit however more like a Grass or Cyperacea, so that Brown was quite startled when he first saw it.
The little Goodenia from the entrance of the Victoria is quite new, at least there is nothing like it in my Herbarium (& I have most of what have been collected by Bynoe &c) nor is it in De Vriese's Monograph.13 This augurs well for the future. Indeed I am of opinion that though a non-mountainous country you will find a good deal of novelty. It is so distant from any region that has been botanically explored. If too you enter Leikhardt's14 country his collections you know went to Paris:15 — Mr Bentham examined the Leguminosae & found several new ones, but the specimens so bad that they could not be described. He might as well have let them alone.
You will please to pay attention to the Zamias, leaves, flowers & fruit. They have been too much neglected. Your excellent artist16 in the Expedition will aid you by his pencil. Is the Pandanus of the country certainly P. spiralis? Does Scaevola Königii grow very large in N. Australia, & is not the pith very abundant & white? It has in India & China been, by some, considered to be made into "Rice-paper". A good section of a large stem would be interesting, a foot or more long.
I have been looking into Stoke's Voyages,17 & he represents charming scenery both on the Victoria & the Albert. Hills rare, from 200 to 800 feet. I see what I take to be Kingia, represented in Albert River, in a plate Vol. II. opposite p. 316. or it may be a bad representation of a Xanthorrhoea. I am amused at Stokes' saying (vol. II. p. 317) that my opinion of a handful of earth he sent me, confirmed his opinion, which suggested for that part of the continent the name of "The land of Promise"! I would engage to find some as good in Iceland & the South Shetland Isles — but they are not therefore "lands of promise", quoad fertility. However God grant they may prove lands of promise to you & to all your intrepid party. Of one thing I am sure that the country will be very interesting as regards the geographical distribution of Plants. That the little Goodenia (allied to a species of the S. of Australia) should be associated with Flagellaria indica & other tropical gentry is truly remarkable:— & I am much mistaken if with your industry & ability & research you will not be in possession of ample materials to make it desirable you should visit England, & do, what nobody else but yourself can do, towards the publication of your treasures;— let alone all that you have collected in the south. A visit to our Herbaria & Libraries & our Botanists would refresh you & strengthen you for further labors. It will be a great disappointment to us if you should not find it needful to come to Europe.
However I shall write you again I trust ere long. No doubt in the mean time some of your Mss. on being verified ought to be published, if it were only to raise public curiosity & prepare for what is to come hereafter. As soon as we shall have seen your first collections we will give you the best advice & will write to you again.
Dr Hooker desires his best remembrances to you & thanks for all your kind & generous mention of him. I trust we shall all meet in health. Make my kind regards to Mr Baines; &, though personally unknown to him, I should be proud to be remembered to your distinguished Commander.
Faithfully & affectionately Yours
W. J. Hooker.
Cyperacea
Flagellaria indica
Goodenia
Kingia
Leguminosae
Pandanus spiralis
Proteaceae
Scaevola Königii
Xanthorrhoea
Zamia
Please cite as “FVM-56-01-04,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/56-01-04