To William Hooker   15 December 1857

Melbourne, bot Garden 15. Dec 1857

My dear Sir William.

The monthly mail closes this day, and I will not fail to adress a few lines to you, that on my side no interruption should take place in the intercourse of this department with Kew. I hope you are enjoying good health and are aiding as ever so many who are anxiously waiting for your co[unsel] and information. I hope the same for Dr Hooker, so that nothing would interrupt his valuable labours. I see in the Gardeners chronicle, that he issued the IV fasc. of the Fl. Tasm., and you may imagine, how I long for it —.¹ My former bookseller here is such a slow man in business, that I have entrusted the agency to an other person who, it is ardently hoped, will not tantalize me so much. I would have made an application for this work or this fascicle earlier, had it not been for your kind offer to send it yourself. I felt somewhat mortified, when Pamplin did not add it about [a] month ago, who also never forwarded the 7th vol of your icones plantarum² and thought that the introduction to Hook & Thomps. Flor. Indica³ would be quite sufficient for my use and that I might very well dispense with the diagnostic part!⁴ —I must confess that being again thrown back for 6 or 12 months in some of my labours, [it] deprives me almost of all courage to proceed with my work, which any botanist, who would place himself for a moment in my position, will readily believe. I wrote to him for a copy of bot. Magaz.⁵ (except vol 1-XXIV which I possess) & for the whole of botan register,⁶ provided he could find me a second hand copy even if incomplete — and I will at once remit. A new copy would be too expensive for my means, for altho I enjoyed since the last six months 600£ salary per annum, I find that with the many calls on me to keep up my official position in society I can in this expensive country hardly save anything. This is a serious matter, as no officer is, should he become unfit for service, entitled to a pension. Moreover with the general reductions of this year in the estimates probably my income will be reduced.⁷

I should be very glad to hear of Josephinia Eugeniae The drawing incurred to me an expense of not less than five guinees.⁸

I have no additional manuscripts to offer by this mail on Mr Gregory’s plants and shall not proceed with the work until I have heard from you again. For I feel sure that more has been written already as can be published for a long while, unless a special grant of money in aid of the publication was obtained from Her Majesty’s Government. I should be very glad to commence to work on the new Glumaceae of tropical Australia, provided there was any hope of seeing the writing published. No word of an acknowledgement of the arrrival of my papers sent in June from Sydney, in June from Melbourne and in every subsequent month together with herbarium, seeds & pamphlets has reached me yet. I prefered therefore continuing my labours rather on the Flora of Victoria, and hope to obtain a grant for publishing 25 lithographic plates for the first fasc. in 1858. I shall extend the bot survey in this month to Cape Otway and in jan. to the sources of the Latrobe River. On both localities I rather expect to find additional Tasmanian forms than new plants. Probably I shall get some seeds there likewise, which I shall contribute to such establishments as have returned a fair equivalent on former occasion. In this regard I have been very much disheartened. I forwarded for instance free of expense a collection of native seeds to the Edinb. bot. Gard in 1855,⁹ and did not even receive a line of acknowledgement, much less any thing in exchange. Now it is not otherwise to be expected, that a young establishment like ours without a fair encouragement by the rich old establishments at home, will never advance. On other occasions the reciprocal gift consists chiefly of annuals, often of the most common kinds! — Being responsible for the well-working of this garden, it is natural that these matters give me the greatest uneasiness, for I might any day be accused by the Government or the public of having squandered away the property of the colony.

I received several very interesting new plants quite lately from Kangaroo Island, a Genethyll[is]¹⁰ with larger sepals than petals (G. grandisepal[a]¹¹ a Choretrum (C. spicatum) with spikes resembling th[ose] of a Polygonum, a new sp. of the same genus resembling Leptomeria aphylla (C. oxycladum)[.] But Choretrum Preissianum & Ch. spinescens are to be reduced to Leptomeria.¹² Further from the Kangaroo Island a Lhotzkya allied to L. ericoides¹³ a sp. of Adenanthus¹⁴ and of Petrophila both seemingly new,¹⁵ also a Tryptomene hitherto undescribed, to which genus I refer with certainty also Paryphantha Mitchelliana Schauer. The Tryptomene saxicola enumerated by Prof. Miquel is very distinct from the West Australian species. (T. Miqueliana). This,T. Mitchelliana T. oligandra from trop. Australia, T. ericaea from Kangaroo Island & T. micrantha from Van Diemens land all agree in pentandrous flowers and petals shorter than the lobes of the calyx. The genus Schuermannia I refer now to Genethyllis.¹⁶

The beautiful silvery Sterculiaceous tree (cultivated according to Mr Hill also in Kew Garden) I have now determined as a new genus and it may receive the name Argyrodendron trifoliolatum. Its carpels are oneseeded and wing-like compressed. Both these and the flowers are remarkably small. I have examined a large suite of specimens of Corraea from many distant localities, and am induced to refer them to five species.

I am glad to observe that Corraea cardinalis is so well appreciated at home, to which your fine figure no doubt contributed.¹⁷ I observe that the name Cissus acida is preoccupied already by the great Linnaeus. Please let it be altered to C. acetosa in case the plant would appear in your journal.¹⁸

I beg to submit to Dr Hooker a description of the fruit of Tetragonella (or perhaps better Tetragonia) implexicoma, which I had an opportunity lately of drawing up from fresh fruits. Drupa subglobosa [leviter] compressa succulenta rubra paulo latior quam long[o] 3-4" metiens calyce persistente coronata salso-dulciuscula. Putamen osseum compressum biloculatum dispermum, inferne dilatatum, superne subito contractum obtusissimum. Semen ex apice anguli centralis pedens, loc[u]lum omnino explens, nitenti-fuscum. Testa submembranea. Embryo cyclicus album amylaceum cingens.¹⁹

We are now engaged in securing the seeds of this garden, which with a share of those to be got from our collector in the field²⁰ will enable me to offer a good many new contributions to Kew. My own work has been lately very heavy, to bring something like correctness in the wild nomenclature of the plants we cultivate. My catalogue is yet short of 2000 species. The December-mail, due on the 5th, has not yet arrived. May it bring good news from you! —

I enclose a copy of an article of the Institute of Victoria now under press²¹ for yourself and Drs Lindley & Sonder and beg to enclose, until I have an opportunity of making up a case of specimens, a few fragments of botanical rarety.

Your most attached

Ferd Mueller.

Sir W. Hooker, K.H. &c &c &c.

Adenanthus

Argyrodendron trifoliolatum

Choretrum Preissianum

Choretrum spicatum

Choretrum spinescens

Choretrum oxycladum

Cissus acetosa

Cissus acida

Corraea cardinalis

Genethyllis

Genethyllis grandisepala

Leptomeria aphylla

Lhotzkya ericoides

Paryphantha Mitchelliana

Petrophila

Polygonum

Schuermannia

Tetragonella implexicoma

Tetragonia implexicoma

Tryptomene ericaea

Tryptomene micrantha

Tryptomene Miqueliana

Tryptomene Mitchelliana

Tryptomene oligandra

Tryptomene saxicola