To William Hooker   16 May 1859

Melbourne botanic

& zoologic Garden,

16. May 1859

My dear Sir William

Altho' the last mail did not bring me any lines from your hand, it conveyed still the marks of your kindness in the transmission of a bill of loading for a case of living plants & a box of [seeds]. Accept my sincere thanks for your kindness of thinking so considerately of this establishment.

I have just placed on board of the "Avon" this day a small box containing seeds, pamphlets, & specimens, also a small collection for Dr Harvey & Prof Lindley, which you perhaps will obligingly place in the hands of those gentlemen. I enclose the No 5 of my fragmenta No.6 is under the press.1 I beg to send you also a plate belonging to my Flora of Victoria, of which a portion is entrusted to the printers hand. There will be only 10 plates for Thalamiflorae, for the artistic work is here to expensive, and as there are besides on three localities here public collections of plants furnished by me, students can consult them and for beginners of course the work is not written.2 I will however endeavour to furnish one plate of all important orders & sub-orders.

There is also a series of new plants under press for the volume of the phil Institute, but I fear it will not be in time ready to send you a copy by this mail.3

Perhaps Dr Hooker with his usual kindness will distribute the extra-fascicle, of the Fragmenta & Babbages report contained in the box pr Avon to such Botanists as will be interested in their issue, and if any of them wishes for particular Nos,. I will gladly send them as soon as printed out.4

I am at last in possession of one copy of the report on Gregorys plants from Coopers Creek, and send this copy, as I shall probably get some more. It is wretchedly full of typographical errors I could not revise the proof5

How very glad I was to receive the other day the prints of Acaciae Eucalypti &c. I see it must have given Mr Bentham, Dr Hooker, Mr.Black & Mr Kippist great trouble to bring the manuscript to such a perfection, and I am trulygrateful to all of them.6

Mr Pamplin sends me now many books of smaller size by the overland mail, an excellent arrangement, with which I am much delighted

The enclosed Logania nuda you will observe has like Mitrasacme volubilis some times rami volubilis!

with very sincere regard,

venerable Sir,

your humble friend,

Ferd Mueller

 

Sir W. Hooker, K.H

 

Acacia

Eucalyptus

Logania nuda

Mitrasacme volubilis

Thalamiflorae

1
Part 5 of M's Fragmenta(B59.04.04) was published in April, part 6 in June (B59.06.01).
2
The collections were at the Public Library, the University and the Botanic Gardens. See M's monthly report to his minister, J. O'Shanassy, 1 July 1858.
3
B59.13.01 and B59.13.02 were published in the Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, in late June or early July of 1859. See Aston (1984).
4
B59.04.02 is a report on the plants collected by Benjamin Babbage in inland South Australia. See Threadgill (1922) for details of route.
5
B59.04.03; it was printed in Sydney by the NSW Government Printer.
6
The papers, B58.11.01 on Eucalypts and B59.02.01 on Acacias, had been revised for publication by the Linnean Society. For examples of comments on the amount of work involved, see letters from J. Hooker to M, for example 22 June 1858.

Please cite as “FVM-59-05-16c,” 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/59-05-16c