To William Hooker   16 September 1859

Melbourne bot & zool.

Garden, 16 Sept. 59.

My dear Sir William,

Altho' I have not received a letter from you by any of the last three mails, I will not let the post steamer pass without some communication, particularly as I have to announce the shipment of 31 Araucarias in a Wardian Case pr "Swiftsure," which the Capt. was friendly enough to take free of freight. There are on board of that vessel several officers of scientific taste, who promised to take all possible care of the consignment, so that, as the plants are fully 3 years old, I should think under ordinary circumstances they would reach Kew not only alive but in a vigorous state. Your noble Araucaria Bidwillii is contained in the case in several specimens, the rest consists of Araucaria excelsa & Cunninghami. Your large variety of seeds is in the ground & some are germinating & will add to the gradually increasing variety of plants in the garden. Our large lake & our ponds are sadly deficient yet of conspicuous water-plants, such as Papyrus, Butomus. I wrote that many of the Cacti, which you were so very kind to send, had perished on the way, but others are ornamenting now our Greenhouse.

I send you herewith the fourth sheet of "the plants of Victoria" & 3 additional plates.¹ of my Fragmenta the 7th No. will appear this month.² I have vainly hoped of receiving Dr Hookers list of the 500 Indian-Australian plants, which would have been such a guidance in selecting the rest of the North Australian novelties for publication in the first vol of the Fragmenta, to be issued this year yet with a complete index. But I know that I have sadly encroached already on your and Dr Hookers time³ and must not be immodest altho' here in the botanical exile it is not so easy to work unaided than in Europe & I am at any circumstance always ready to reciprocate, of whatever value those reciprocations may be.

I am now also a regular subscriber to Bot. Magazine, I admired much the last plates & more so still your vigorous activities in conducting so valuable & now unparalleled a work, regretting only, that my own peregrinations have not tended to contribute for elucidation in it more to the European Gardens. My Dendrobium gracilicaule flowered here; it is a native of Moreton Bay & has much affinity with D. speciosum. Its flowers are smaller & spotted, the leaves also much smaller & the stems slender. The Polygonum platycladum from New Caledonia has born fruit & is a true polygonaceous plant, but a Muehlenbeckia or Coccoloba, the fruit not developing its embryo, but the calyx becoming perfectly succulent. I send also bill of loading for box of Algae & other specimens sent pr Dover castle

Wishing you, my dear Sir William, health & happiness I remain your sincerely attached

Ferd. Mueller

Would not Charcoal be best as a medium for packing Cacti & Orchids? I ordered a large lot of tree and shrub seeds from Hendersons to be packed in roughly crushed Charcoal, between which the various bundles of seeds were placed in a hermethically closed box & the result fully corresponded to my expectations. For all, [oily] and succulent ones as well, arrived in the most excellent state of preservation, which is the very first time I can say this, the greater part of the seed consignments received for this garden being formerly damaged or worthless. Is this not a pity, if with the little care required for packing them in coal, they might be saved? Veitch sent simultaneously seeds in sawdust! —

Araucaria Bidwillii

Araucaria Cunninghami

Araucaria excelsa

Butomus

Coccoloba

Dendrobium gracilicaule

Dendrobium speciosum

Muehlenbeckia

Papyrus

Polygonum platycladum