To William Hooker   29 January 1859

Melbourne bot. & zoolog.

Garden, 29 Jan. 1859.

My dear Sir William

With extreme delight did I receive your very kind lines, dated Nov. 11 1858,¹ particularly joyful to me as some time had passed since I greeted your handwriting. I am pleased to learn, that many of my contributions towards [your] library and collections have met with your satisfaction and am glad, that I can again offer some novelties. I have lately visited some ranges of the S.W. part of our alps on the foot of which I found a magnificent Goodenia with purple flowers of which I enclose a specimen.² Seeds had not ripened, but I think I can procure them yet this season, and will gladly do so as this novelty is likely to become a favorite potplant at home.

My duties on this establishment are so onerous, that it is difficult for me to leave Melbourne for longer than 2 or 3 weeks at a time. I could therefore not finish the examination of the ranges but shall probably set out again for them in February, in order that the alpine vegetation may be thoroughly made known. I discovered in an auriferous country! a range trotten by no white man yet, which extends in a semielliptical shape from Mount Wellington, which is the southern key of the Australian Alps to Mount Useful, and I believe that in traversing the crest of it, I shall be able to strike on high land [away] to Mount Baw Baw. The new range varies in hight from 4- to 5000 feet, may yield therefore Tasmanian alpine forms.

In the part nearest to it, through which I was able to pass (impenetrable thickets preventing me and my companion A. M'Millan — the discoverer of Gipps Land, to reach the main range from the M'Allister River) —N. S. W. plants predominated. I added to the Flora of Victoria: Goodenia Millani, n.sp., Dampiera ovalifolia R Br., Scaevola apterantha n.sp., Eriostemon lamprophyllus n.sp., Muehlenbeckia stenophilla, n.sp., Prostanthera decussata n.sp.,³ Laxmannia gracilis RBr., Pomaderris lanigera Aiton. — Mr Dallachy is expected to return shortly from the Darling and I trust our conjoint collections of seeds will amount to something worthy of your acceptance. A considerable quantity of specimens will also be transmitted again to Kew I have to thank you, my dear Sir William, for having so kindfully forwarded my brochures &c As I have now a business intercourse established with Mr Pamplin, I trust that I need not call your kind aid in again for distribution. But if ever any of your friends at home desire to have particular plants or publications, I shall gladly forward them to you. — We are now planing the lecture hall intended for the garden.

Pray, should you on any occasion be able to let us again enjoy the contributions of living plants — do not frank them. Our transit Office has ample means to bear the expense for any thing we may have to send to Kew, and my own department permits me now to pay the freight for anything that arrives —

I beg to return the receipt which your son so kindfully sent me. I shall always place a good fund at Mr Pamplins disposal, so that any work that you would kindfully order for me, might at once come out — The transmission however this time seems not to have been an expeditious one, so that I have nothing yet of the L.S. in hand nor what you, my dear Sir William & your excellent son sent me.

How I regret the sad distress which the poor family of Mr Elsey befel! Had my poor friend returned to Australia, perhaps he would have been saved for [...]⁴

But providence has arranged everything for the best. —

I am glad to hear of Mr Baines prosperity and success, and a more deserving man & a more suitable one for the [ardent] exploit does not exist.⁵ — If you have the opportunity pray give him my sincerest respect. — With my best wishes for you and Dr Hooker,

I remain,

my beloved Sir,

your sincerely

attached servant

Ferd. Mueller.

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

Dampiera ovalifolia

Eriostemon lamprophyllus

Goodenia Millani

Laxmannia gracilis

Muehlenbeckia stenophilla

Pomaderris lanigera

Prostanthera decussata

Scaevola apterantha