To William Hooker   24 October 1861

Melbourne bot & zool. Garden

24. Oct. 1861

My dear and venerable Sir William.

I have an other dear letter of yours before me, dated last Aug. 1861,1 and whilst I enjoy so deeply all your kind noble words I was griefed to hear of your bodily sufferings, and implore you to take the utmost of care of yourself! All who know you (and who amongst scientific men does not?) feel the greatest anxiety for you and I pray that providence may grant you after the very labourious day of your useful life a very long and serene evening, full of happiness and repose. I truely admire your endless work, unexampled in Botany! and how you are able to convey uninterruptedly such an amount of knowledge in copious volumes through the world is and ever will be an enigma to me.

You will receive a vast additon to your museum no doubt through the next exhibition,2 and I anticipate with pleasure, that the share, which we are able to offer in this colony, will interest you. We have many samples of oil distilled, a fine net of Cyperus vaginatus ready, a very fine series of large planks of sound wood all carefully named and splendid fruit casts in gypsum &c &c, all of which shall go to you.3

I enclose a few notes on the true & typical genus Lagunaria (L. Pattersonii) which may prove useful to Dr Hookers & Mr Benthams genera.4 If I had proof sheets, I could probably suggest some additions before the volumes close, and if my humble aid is acceptable, it will be most gladly rendered. I had recently an opportunity of examining seeds of Delabechea and have no doubt now, altho' the embryo was not available for examination, but from the development of the chalaza, that the genus as Brown believed is indistinguishable from Brachychiton.5

I trust that our estimable friend Prof Harvey is fully recovered from his illness. Undoubtedly he paid, amidst his arduous work, not the necessesary attention to his health.

With the sentiments of profound attachment

dear & venerable Sir William, yours

Ferd. Mueller.

 

The index for the second volume of Fragmenta is prepared.

 

Brachychiton

Cyperus vaginatus

Lagunaria Pattersonii

 
 
1
Letter not found.
2
London International Exhibition, 1862.
3
Items attributed to M in the exhibition were tea, ginger, bark (p. 143), 447 pieces of Victorian timber assembled under his direction (p. 144), 'a pair of saddle bags, with wire and leather covers, as used by Exhibitor for drying plants when travelling in the bush' (p. 145), 'resins and oils from various indigenous trees and plants' (p. 142). J Mackenzie from Swan Hill, Vic, exhibited a 'fishing net made by natives of the Murray, from fibre cyperus vaginatus' (p. 145), J. Bosisto exhibited 'oils, tinctures, varnishes, drugs etc.' (p. 142) and the Exhibition Commissioners exhibited a collection of a large variety of fruits and vegetables as coloured plaster casts (p. 143). The Botanical Garden was recorded as having grown the New Zealand flax used to make rope exhibited by F Staber of the Melbourne suburb of Collingwood (p. 144). Others exhibited various other natural products.
4
The notes have not been located. No mention of M's aid is made in the entry for Lagunariain Bentham & Hooker (1862-83)vol. 1, p. 208.
5
Brown (1849), p. 66.

Please cite as “FVM-61-10-24,” 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/61-10-24