From William Hooker   26 July 1863

July 26.1863.

My very dear Dr Muller

Your most welcome Packages & letters have come all safely up to the present time & I often get some interesting Fern pickings among them. But what has pleased me most is more perfect specimens of Gymnogramma Muelleri & which arrived & at the very hour when I was sending the former fragments to be drawn & engraved. So I now have the satisfaction of being able to add the entire stipes & Caudex.¹ With regard to the Genus it as with all those fronds which are densely covered with hairs or scales as here & in Gymnogramma vestita (I am obliged to write Gramnitis & Gymnogramna) it is very difficult to trace the exact nature of the sori. But I think it will be found referred there. I wish however more could be found in fruit. It cannot be Achrostichaceous. It is [our] Brother to G. vestita: one (the latter) has a rich silky covering, the other most curious scales instead of silk. I wish your Pteris Bowmani² were as novel as this. It is indeed very rare in Australia & was found by Brown in tropical Austa. It is Pteris (Litobrochia) pedata. But pray urge Mr Bowman to continue his Fern researches & depend upon it he will

I have a long letter from your excellent Governor.³ How you will miss him, when he shall have gone to Mauritius. But he will do good & patronize science wherever he goes — & much requires to be done in Mauritius, Madagascar & other neighbouring Isles. In your last great package were several bundles (large ones) of Ferns belonging to Sir Henry Barkly, from British Guiana, & Jamaica.⁴ I have barely had time to look into them: but from⁵ I did see they appear to be a most wretched set of specimens, miserable fragments of species wrapped up in a most astounding quantity of paper. Your own considerable collections of Australian Ferns look to promise better. But I can do little to them till I have completed my Vol. 5 of Sp. Plant.⁶ of which every word is ready for the printer & more than half the volume printed. I wait chiefly for the plates. This has been a kind of holiday season & I am just returned from a rather long visit to our friends in Norfolk with Lady Hooker. Mr Bentham had great need of entire relaxation. By this time I trust the copies of Fl. Austral. are in your hands.⁷ I have pleasant letters from Sir John Young & Governor Daly.⁸

A little while ago we were gratified by the prospect of soon seeing you in England. Since I have been away Dr Hooker tells me he has heard, from some of your Melbourne friends I believe, that your voyage is delayed. I had felt that you were on your way or I should sooner than this have written to you. We shall know more about this: I dispatch regularly all your parcels letters &c that come from thrgh⁹ the Col. Office to their places of destination: among them your letter & Carex to Boott.¹⁰ Alas before he could receive it we have letters (this morning) give the unwelcome news of his being alarming ill & that his Physicians & family think very unfavorably of him. How he will be missed by his great circle of acquaintance where he is loved more than any man.¹¹ I was somewhat prepared from what Lady Smith told me in Suffolk a few days.¹² He & his Wife were expected there, but without alarming Lady Smith they wrote to say that he was not able to go. This Lady Smith is the Widow of Sir Jas Smith,¹³ & now at 92(!) is as hale, as handsome & with a mind as vigorous as when she was 40. We often see Sir Chas Nicholson. He gave a grand dinner a week ago in London at which Dr Hooker was present. I am too old to dine out. The Gastrolobium parcel is attended.¹⁴ Some will be analysed in England.

The family of Boott will take great care of any of your Plants that may be with him.

All your notes on the Geographical distribution of Ferns in Australia must be useful. Your Fragmenta & Fl. Vict¹⁵ are invaluable. Bentham sees all your communications & notes what he wishes to say to you when he writes.

affectly¹⁶ yours,

W. J. Hooker.

I am greatly pleased to have your Photograph.

Coccoloba¹⁷ I have figured in B. Mag. from your drawing: but necessarily reduced in size.

Carex

Coccoloba

Gastrolobium

Grammitis

Gymnogramma Muelleri

Gymnogramme vestita

Litobrochia pedata

Pteris Bowmani

Pteris pedata