To William Hooker   15 November 1858

Melbourne bot. & zool Garden,

15. Nov. 58.

My dear & venerable Sir William

The mail due from England on the 5th of this month has not arrived, and I have therefore little to communicate, having written to Dr. Hooker by last post.1 I hereby beg to send you a copy of my report,2 and a specimen of the Dendrobium Milligani, which will be published in my Fragmenta this month.3 Dr Milligan has likewise given me a specimen of Panax sambucifolius from V.D.L. near the Douglas River.

The Fragmenta will be out this month.

The distinguished traveller H. R. H. Prince Paul William, Duke of Wurtemburg left to day after several months hard collecting work in Australia, and will wait on you when he arrives in England. Being one of [...],4 I am sure, you will be pleased with H Highness visit.

Our former Premier Minister Mr Haines, will visit England & takes in a few days his departure pr. "Norfolk" I shall send [specimens] pamphlets seeds &c for yourself, Prof Harvey &c, and a case with living plants, enclosing the noble Cynoglossum Chathamicumfrom Chatham Island5 & Polygonum platycladum from N. Caledonia.

Wishing you, much beloved Sir William, health, happiness & strenght for your great labours,

I remain as ever your sincerely attached

Ferd. Mueller.

 

Cynoglossum Chathamicum

Dendrobium Milligani

Panax sambucifolius

Polygonum platycladum

1
M to J. Hooker, 15 October 1858.
2
B58.11.02.
3
B59.02.03, p. 88; the formal publication was delayed.
4
two illegible words.
5
Although M discussed Cynoglossum chathamicum and exhibited a living specimen at a meeting of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria on 8 November 1858, he refrained from publishing it 'because meanwhile the venerable Sir Will Hooker had given an account of the same plant'. See Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria (1859) p. xxv and B64.13.02, pp. 2, 32. J. Hooker (1858a) described the plant as Cynogossum nobile: W. Hooker transfered it to a new genus, Myostidium, in W. Hooker (1827-64) vol. 85, t. 5137 (1859).

Please cite as “FVM-58-11-15,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/58-11-15