To William Hooker   15 October 1859

Royal botanic & zoologic Garden,

Melbourne, 15 Oct. 59

Dear Sir William

Only last night I received an other fascicle of the gorgeous "exotic ferns" for which I tender to you [very] cordial thanks.1

I am more than ever surprised by the immensity of work you are furnishing the world with, one day arrives the bot. Magaz. an other day, the exoctic fern, than comes a new number of carefully worked species filicum, then a voluminous report on your model establishment & so forth, so that we young men (and I could be your nepos), make but a very poor display in comparison! Grant God you long life (Humboldtian life) & the health of that wise and labourious man2

On the 90th Birthday we held a nekrolog here of Humboldt, on which occasion it fell to my share to deliver the principal oration.3

The Hon David Moore, under whose Ministry I was appointed to the Directorship of this establishment, has kindly taken in the "Anglesey" with him a small box, containing spare plates of my "plants indigenous to Victoria",4 copies for distribution to your bot friends of Fragmenta VI & VII5 & wood of Morinda Leichhardtia & of Flindersia maculosa, seeds of several Australian plants in large lots and as emballage also unprepared algae including the large Sarcophycus potatorum.

Mr Moore is an enlightened & kind & active man, born in New South Wales, who not saw England before & who as former Chief of this establishment would of course be glad to acquaint himself with your department.

£1000 is placed upon my solicitation by the Ministry of Victoria on the support of our excellent Governor on the estimate for 1860, & I trust, as I enjoy some little popularity here, will be voted by Parliament, to be expended in an Universal work on Australian botany by Mr Bentham & myself.6

Ever with the most sincere regards,

your attached & humble,

Ferd. Mueller

 

Flindersia maculosa

Morinda Leichhardtia

Sarcophycus potatorum

 
1
W. Hooker (1859a).
2
Alexander von Humboldt died on 6 May 1859, shortly. before his 90th birthday.
3
See B59.09.02, B59.10.01, B59.10.03 for text of M's oration. See also M to J. Macadam, 14 September 1859.
4
B62.03.03. The plates were distributed prior to publication.
5
B59.06.01, B59.09.03.
6
No such sum was placed on the estimates for 1860 framed in 1859, but the sum of £320 was voted towards the expense of publishing, in Melbourne, a work on the indigenous plants of Victoria. See Victoria, Legislative Assembly (1859) Estimates, 1860 and supplementary estimates for 1859, Melbourne. These estimates were ordered to be printed on 2 December 1859. See also M to J. Hooker, 15 November 1859.

Please cite as “FVM-59-10-15a,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/59-10-15a