To William Hooker   25 September 1863

Melbourne bot Gard.

25/9/63

My dear Sir William.

I have again to thank you for a kind letter received by last mail.1 As you refer in it to Grammitis Muelleri, the fern on which you so graciously bestowed my name,it is pleasing to me now to send you whilst replying a beautiful fruit specimen of this rare and singular plant, gathered again on the only locality from whence it is known by that zealous & deserving collector Mr Edw Bowman.2

Your anticipation as to the generic position of this fern seems to be fully realized, for on a cursorily inspection I think it must be a Grammitis. I have sent a few more specimens of it by the Norfolk this day in case No. 18, together with all the supplemental gatherings of ferns obtained since I shipped to you my normal collection. You will find a good many duplicates, of which pray make the freest use. Mr Dallachy is collecting in the ranges of N.E. Australia and as he is in a country not quite poor in ferns you may receive still further additions. I noticed since I sent the last specimens that the Pteris then forwarded is nothing else than P. pedata.3 The first specimens were so small, that I recognized not the Brazil plant, which I found myself copiously in 1847 on the Organ Mountains near Rio de Janeiro.

I shall bid to morrow our excellent Sir Henry Barkly for the last time personally goodbye.4 Indeed we all will miss him much! and I so especially; for he showed himself invariably rather a friend than a Patron & nothing could surpass Sir Henrys constant urbanity and kindness & interest. I will point out to Sir Henry how much might be done at the heads of the rivers in Madagascar!

With what glorious rapidity your "species filicum"5 proceed.

Messrs Fitzalan & Dallachy have just returned from Mount Elliot.6 The plants corresponding to vol I & II of Bth's flora7 are already shipped by the "Norfolk". The yield of novelty from this high mount was not so large as could have been expected.

Trusting that you, dear Sir William, continue to enjoy the blessing of good health, I remain, your attached

Ferd. Mueller.

 

What in our Victorian timber collection8 was called Acacia leprosa I find now is = A. subporosa.

 

Acacia leprosa

Acacia subporosa

Grammitis Muelleri

Pteris pedata

1
W. Hooker to M, 26 July 1863.
2
Hooker described Grammitis muelleri as Gymnogramma muelleri in W. Hooker (1846–64), vol. 5, p. 143 and t. CCXCV, from specimens collected by Edward Bowman at Fort Cooper, a homestead between the Carborough and Denham Ranges, west of Mackay, Qld.
3
See M to W. Hooker, 14 May 1863.
4
Henry Barkly was appointed as Governor of Mauritius at the end of his term as Governor of Victoria. On 26 September some 'other gentlemen' joined members of the Ministry on the colonial warship Victoria as they accompanied Barkly on the first part of his voyage to Mauritius before being transferred by barge to the Northam about ten miles from port ( Argus , 28 September 1863, pp. 4-5).
5
W. Hooker (1846-64).
6
Near Townsville, Qld.
7
Bentham (1863-78).
8
Sent for the London International Exhibition, 1862 .

Please cite as “FVM-63-09-25b,” 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 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/63-09-25b