To William Hooker   16 February 1860

Melbourne bot. & zool. Garden,

16. Febr. 1860

My very dear & venerable Sir William,

Again the mail day arrived, which must not pass without a few lines being directed to Kew. Let me first of all acknowledge your generosity of promising to offer an other addition to the treasures of this garden, as our good & patriotic friend Edw. Wilson Esq. indicated. What a treasure & ornament the Papyrus will be in our lake!¹ I will do my utmost to reciprocate worthily, & you, my dear Sir William, will, I am convinced pardon any shortcomings of mine, because I was really very unwell for a long time last season & not able to sit up so late at night sorting specimens, labelling &c as I was accustomed to do; had also much work in seeing the sceem² of the forthcoming expedition³ progressing & to attend to my presidency of the Royal Society.⁴ In a few weeks however I shall send a good share of plants to your herbarium, containing many a rarety from near Sharks Bay⁵ & from New England.⁶ I trust Mr Bentham will not commence publishing his ardently expected flora,⁷ until these valuable treasures arrive. I was very sorry, that the Victorian Government, through a change of Ministry withdrew the promised aid of £1000 - - for this year, & but I confidently hope that when placing it again on the estimates for 1861 in June next, that we shall be more successfull.⁸ The South Australian Government is kind enough to promise a share towards the fund for Mr Benthams flora in proportion to our own, taking the discrepancies of the income of the two colonies into account.⁹ I am steadily proceeding as well with the "plants indigenous to Victoria"¹⁰ as with the "Fragmenta".¹¹ Dr Hookers kindly transmitted list of India-Australian plants¹² throws much light on my northern species, but I must still refrain from publishing many of them, as I am inclined to believe even more to be identical with Asiatic species, than Dr Hookers list promulgates. Therefore, my dear Sir William, you can imagine how grateful I will be to receive the set, which Dr Harvey writes¹³ was laid kindly by aside for me from the E. I. Company's Herbarium.¹⁴

If providence grants me life, I hope to be able to do yet much in elucidating the native flora. From E. Australia I received just now a curious new genus of Cunoniaceae or some allied order, which will be published in Fragm xii,¹⁵ also a second species of Oberonia with exceedingly minute flowers.¹⁶

I have examined good ripe seeds of Macarthuria; it is beyond all doubt Portulaceous Mollugineous!

This week I received at last ripe fruit of Burtonia subalpina; it is as you rightly foresaw a true genuine Pultenaea! but has uniformly rose-coloured flowers. The white flowered Villarsia from W. Australia I have just described; also a white rayed Senecio from thence & a green flowered Leschenaultia.¹⁷

The Capparideous Emblingia is one of the oddest things I ever saw, and also the Lobelia with long filiform seed capsules from Sharks Bay is very curious.¹⁸ I have also now flowers of Anopterus Maccleyana.¹⁹ It is a fine species with octamerous flowers. What I formerly [sent] as Senecio drymophilus is Gynura ovalis DC! can you or Dr Hooker kindly inform me where Macrozamia Fraseri is described? — I think to be able to send my next consignment in a fourthnight by the "Great Britain." Mr Wilson announced your kind shipment by that vessel, but it did not arrive in [time].

Ever gratefully yours

Ferd Mueller.

Anopterus Maccleyana

Burtonia subalpina

Cunoniaceae

Emblingia

Gynura ovalis

Leschenaultia

Lobelia

Macarthuria

Macrozamia Fraseri

Oberonia

Papyrus

Pultenaea

Senecio

Senecio drymophilus

Villarsia