To William Hooker   15 March 1858

Melbourne bot.Garden,

15 March. 1858.

My dear Sir William

Already by last mail I had the pleasure of thanking you for the most valuable contribution of plants & seeds to this garden.¹ The former are mostly by this time cloathed in a beautiful fresh green of young leaves and much admired by our visitors. No letters having arrived from you by this mail, I have at last to express all my gratitude for the tokens of kindness in your last letter,² to which I could not reply by the corresponding mail, the steamer coming in only after a protracted voyage, when the mail had left. I esteem it as an extreme favour, that notwithstanding your multifarious advocations you hold myself worthy of such regular & continued attention. May the blessings of providence permit you, to be long yet amongst us.

— Passing seriatim through your kind suggestions & enquiries, I beg leave to state, that I shall be but too happy to see you make any use of my little fund for books such as I may require. I mentioned to Mr Pamplin, that I am so very anxious for obtaining a second hand copy of Bot. Magaz. (exclus. I-XXIV)³ & of Bot. Register,⁴ and I should be quite pleased even with an imperfect series of the volumes, and would at once send the saldo,⁵ if he will trust me so long til I know he has secured these great national works. He must not forget to send Hook & Thoms. fl. Indica & your species filicum.⁶

I feel very proud, that you think so well of my report on the Botany of North Australia⁷ and I hope that an equally favourable opinion will be entertained of it in parliament. The index of the [genera] is to be corrected in some instances, Dichrostachys = Mitreola. But I feel how very burdensome all these labours must be to you officially to receive them, to report on them &c

I am fortunately now in possession of the whole of last years Kew Miscellany, and can not to much regret, that such a valuable & interesting periodical should not have enjoyed more support. Many thanks for all you kindness evinced to me in its pages.

With one of the first clippers I will endeavour to fill your Wardian Cases again, meanwhile 3 of mine must have arrived at Kew. — We are preparing for the autumnal show of the Horticultural Society; this and other extra-labours leave me little leisure, so that my descriptive labours progressed but tardily, but will be resumed with alacrity as soon as possible.

A few remarks on Leguminosae & ferns, perhaps partially useful for Dr Hookers Tasmanian Flora I beg to offer.

Pultenaea diffusa, unless the seeds are strophiolate, is referable to Phyllota, a genus which differs on account of its want of both stipules & strophioles more from Pultenaea than from Burtonia, the differences of that genus consisting chiefly in the almost regularly toothed calyx.⁸ Pult. cordata is nothing else than the broad-leaved form of Pultenaea [juniperina], and P. pimeloides⁹ seems to be an analogous variety of P. dentata. I cannot specifically distinguish Pult. hibbertioides from Pult. mollis. Indeed the aberrations from the typical forms in Pultenaea species is so great, that I have now a full series of intermediate forms between P. foliolosa, P. epacridea [&] Spadostylis¹⁰ pimeloides. Euchilus & Spadostylis are mere subgenera of Pultenaea. Sclerothamnus is referable to Eutaxia. — Hewardia Tasmanica I possess from Mount Laperouse Dr Hooker has in the fl. N.Z.¹¹ the preference given to the name Gleichenia semivestita Labill. sert., altho' 16 years older than R. Br. name G. microphylla. Some states of this species from N. South Wales convince me, that Gl. speluncae & Gl. rupestris are only such varieties of it, as local circumstances will readily produce. Guillemin's figure of G. speluncae is quite hairy.¹²

After the show I hope to be able to examine the plants of the South-East extremity of Australia and to introduce thus new species both into our Flora and our garden. I mention this merely, as I may thus be prevented from writing by the next mail.

I remain, my dear Sir William,

most humbly yours

Ferd. Mueller.

The Victorian Institute elected me with an overwhelming majority of votes to the Vicepresidency with Mr Hodgkinson, the Surveyor-General. Prevented from attending at the election I was unable to opp[ose]¹³ my nomination, as I had no idea, my philos. friends had such an honour in [countenance]¹⁴ for me. Now I feel it my duty to accept the high rank, being so kindfully & spontaneously offered.¹⁵

Dr Sonder requests me, to send him a copy of my papers printed by the Tasm. Roy. Soc. for Walp. annales.¹⁶ I enclose the only one I have, to go through your favor some day to him.

The Panicum frumentosum¹⁷ has never been introduced into Australia.

Burtonia

Dichrostachys

Euchilus

Eutaxia

Gleichenia microphylla

Gleichenia rupestris

Gleichenia semivestita

Gleichenia speluncae

Gleichenia speluncae

Hewardia Tasmanica

Leguminosae

Mitreola

Panicum frumentosum

Phyllota

Pultenaea cordata

Pultenaea dentate

Pultenaea diffusa

Pultenaea epacridea

Pultenaea foliolosa

Pultenaea hibbertioides

Pultenaea juniperina

Pultenaea mollis

Pultenaea pimeloides

Sclerothamnus

Spadostylis pimeloides