Kew July 14/61
Dear Dr Mueller
I send herewith the receipts for your entrance & composition to the R. Socy1 in haste. Please address a letter to the Secretary, for the Council, asking that the ceremony of presenting yourself for admission may be postponed "sine die".2
My Father has been very poorly this spring, but is now much better & about to go into the country for change of air. Dr Harvey has also been dangerously ill with haemorrhage from the throat but is convalescent. he has written to you3 about the Australian Flora, & I do hope that you will see the expediency of the course he proposes — it is no fault of yours that you are not in a position to publish such a Flora. — nor that you have not had the experience in general Botany & especially in descriptive Botany that are so essential to drawing up short accurate diagnostic descriptions. Your election to R.S. will I am sure convince you that every one here is duly anxious for your fair fame, & appreciates to the full your admirable labors. Go on publishing your materials by all means, & above all things do give us an Index to all your species with references — we often waste hours over your works for want of a key to the whole.
In great haste
Ever sinc[erely] yrs
Jos D Hooker4
Please cite as “FVM-61-07-14,” 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 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/61-07-14