From Joseph Hooker to Ferdinand von Mueller   1 Nov 1863

Kew Nov. 1/63.

My dear Mueller

I have several letters to acknowledge & to thank you for, but a series of heavy domestic afflictions in my own & my wife's family¹ have thrown much sorrow & much business on my hands. Nor am I yet free, as my eldest boy² is just recovering from scarlet fever, & my mother is lying now ill with the same. My father happily is perfectly well.

I was grieved to hear of the damp having got to your returned collections,³ & can assure you that this must have happened after they left the Herbarium; we have no damp room in the whole house, none that are not full of plants, & I saw your collections packed in a perfectly dry state. I have shown your letter to Bentham & Black & Helmsly⁴ who assisted in the packing; & they truly observe, that if packed damp here, they would have reached you hopelessly rotted & past doing any-thing with — As it is I am excessively sorry for it, as there is nothing we can do but pack them in tin, in a perfectly dry state.

I should have sent you the enclosed⁵ a month ago, but have been quite thrown off my work.

Bentham is progressing with the Leguminosae & has got past the Genisteae &c.

I am busy with the New Zealand Flora,⁶ but have done very little to it for 2 months. The Phanogamic part is however nearly finished — Gen Plant.⁷ is not quite at a stand still, for Bentham is at the Leguminosae for it, & I have done Rosaceae, Saxif.⁸ Lythrarieae, Onagrar.⁹ Drosereae,¹⁰ Combret.,¹¹ Rhizophoreae, & Halorageae & allied orders, so that some progress is made you see.

My Father desires his kindest regards.

Do you take the "Natural History Review" it is becoming a standard work, & contains a long Review of the Australian Flora, in the October number.¹²

Ever most sincerely yr

Jos D Hooker

Combretaceae

Drosereae

Genisteae

Halorageae

Leguminosae

Lythrarieae

Onagrarieae

Rosaceae

Rhizophoreae

Saxifrageae