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 family2 have thrown much sorrow & much business on my hands. Nor am I yet free, as my eldest boy3 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,4 & 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 & Helmsly5 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 enclosed6 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,7 but have done very little to it for 2 months. The Phanogamic part is however nearly finished — Gen Plant.8 is not quite at a stand still, for Bentham is at the Leguminosae for it, & I have done Rosaceae, Saxif.9 Lythrarieae, Onagrar.10 Drosereae,11 Combret.,12 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.13
Ever most sincerely yr
Jos D Hooker
Combretaceae
Drosereae
Genisteae
Halorageae
Leguminosae
Lythrarieae
Onagrarieae
Rosaceae
Rhizophoreae
Saxifrageae
Please cite as “FVM-63-11-01,” 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 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/63-11-01