To Julius Haast1    29 July 1862

29/7/62

Mein theuerster Freund.

Es macht mir grosse Freude Ihnen heute einige Abdrücke Ihrer edlen Landschaftsbilder der Glacier des Mount Cook übersenden zu können. Die kurze Notiz zu den Gletschern hat der Editor selbst geliefert.2 Ich war hoch beglückt Ihr effigies zu erhalten, was mir von Ihrer rüstigen Persönlichkeit eine lebhafte Vorstellung giebt bis ich einmal das Glück habe Ihre Freundeshand schütteln zu können. Was Sie mir über Travers Handlungsweise sagten hat mich doch betroffen. Ich habe vor 2 od. 3 Monaten gleich nach dem Empfange Ihrer Alpenpflanzen den Ranunkel mit einer Beschreibung an Dr Hooker gesandt u hatte ich die Handlungsweise Ihres Compatitoren voraussehen können, würde die Art hier gleich veröffentlicht haben, um Ihnen die Priorität zu sichern. Mit letzter Post an Dr Hooker schreibend spielte ich auf den Umstand an, u will es jetzt seinem Rechtlichkeitsgefühl überlassen zu thun was er gut denkt. Im Vertrauen gesprochen möchte ich aber doch bemerken, dass Sie auf Grossmuth bei unsern englischen Wissenschaftsfreunden nicht rechnen dürfen.

Wollen Sie daher gütig im Auge halten, dass ich gern die bot. Erforschung von den Chatham Inseln mir sichern möchte, worauf ich auch wohl einiges Anrecht habe, weil ich neuerdings zuerst auf diesen Gegenstand die Aufmerksamkeit gelenkt. Es lag mir daran für die Canadische bot. Gesellschaft, in welcher ich einen der 4 Ehrensitze für die Colonien habe, eine wichtige Abhandlung schuldige, für welche die Chatham Pflanzen passenden Stoff liefern möchten.

An meinen Freund Sir Rod Murchison schrieb ich mit dieser Monats-Post, Ihre Wahl in die RGS. beantragend.

Mit Freude und darin Ehre suchend werde ich Ihrem Wunsch willfahren Ihnen mein Bild zu senden. Es ist mir keins im Augenblich zur Hand, da ich im Allgemeinen mich dem portraitirn widersetzte. Selbst Sir Will. Hookers Wunsch habe ich bisher nicht erfüllt in dieser Rücksicht, obgleich meins das einzige Bild eines beschreibenden Phytologen sein soll was in der Kew Gallerie fehlt.3

Prof M'Coy sagt, dass er Ihnen letzhin über Ihre Fossilien Aufschluss gegeben habe, die Kiste sei verlegt worden Er hat sich über den Inhalt derselben sehr gefreuet.4

 
 
 

29 July 1862.

My dearest friend,

It gives me great pleasure to be able to send to you today a few reprints of your noble landscape sketches of the Mount Cook glacier.5 The short notes were provided by the editor. I was very happy to receive your photograph,6 it gives me a vivid concept of your vigorous personality, until one day I shall have the good fortune to shake your friendly hand.

I must say that what you tell me about Travers' conduct has disconcerted me. I had sent the Ranunculus together with a description to Dr Hooker immediately on receiving your alpine plants two or three months ago.7 Had I been able to foresee the conduct of your competitor, I should certainly have published the species here at once to secure your priority. When I wrote to Dr Hooker with the last mail, I alluded to the incident and I am now going to leave it to his sense of justice to do as he thinks best. Though, speaking in confidence, I would like to remark, that you cannot count on much magnanimity from our English scientific friends.8

Would you therefore kindly keep in mind, that I would like to secure for myself the botanical exploration of the Chatham Islands. I think I have some claim on this, as I have recently been the first to draw attention to this subject. I am concerned that I owe the Canadian Botanical Society, where I occupy one of the four honorary colonial memberships, an important paper, for which the Chatham Island plants might provide a suitable subject matter.

With this month's mail I wrote to my friend Sir Roderick Murchison and proposed your election to the Royal Geographical Society.9

I will be happy and consider it an honour to accede to your wish and send you my photograph. I do not have one available at the moment, as I generally resist being photographed. So far I have not even complied with Sir William Hooker's wish in this regard, even though mine is supposed to be the only photograph of a describing botanist lacking in the Kew gallery.

Professor McCoy says, that he has recently communicated to you information on your fossils, and that the box was mislaid at the moment. He was very happy with its contents.

 

Ranunculus

1
MS black-edged. The file consists of 8 pages. However, pp. 5-8 are misfiled here, being the continuation of MS no. 521, folder 203, M to J. Haast, 24 December 1861.
2
Die kurze ... geliefert. is a marginal note without indication of insertion point in the text, but seems to belong here.
3
The final three words are wrapped around and completed in the margin. There is no valediction.
4
'Prof M'Coy ... gefreuet' written in margin.
5
See M to J. Haast, 25 May and 29 June 1862. Pictures of the Mueller and Hooker Galciers at Mt Cook, NZ, ‘from an original drawing by Julius Haast, Esq.’, were published in Illustrated Australian Mail , 21 July 1862, p. 136, with a brief commentary.
6
There is no photograph of Haast in M's surviving photograph album in the library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
7
See M to J. Haast, 18 March 1862, and M to J. Hooker, 24 March 1862 (in this edition as 62-03-24a).
8
Letter not found. However, see Hooker's reply, J. Hooker to M, 22 August 1862, in which he told M (a) that what Travers had sent to Kew, that Hooker had named R. traversii, was not the same species as the one M had sent, and (b) that what M had described as R. haastii had been discovered earlier by David Lyall and already described by Hooker as R. lyallii.
9
Letter not found. See also M to J. Haast, 29 June 1862. There is no evidence that Haast was ever elected to the Royal Geographical Society.

Please cite as “FVM-62-07-29b,” 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 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/62-07-29b