22/2/64
My dear Miss
Your kind lines1 reached me after Mr Fletcher & Mr Smith had started,2 so I reply to them by first post, though I have little else to say, but that I feel highly gratified that you are well & that your spirit is not so depressed as before.
Pray let me know, whether I can do anything, that would give pleasure to Mr & Mrs M'Haffie. Mr Fletcher will have brought the best female white Swan I have here. I have seen Mr M'Haffie several time & he treated me invariably kindly. Mr Snodgrass I have also met, who though he is courteous, seems distant. Of course I cannot expect more from an intimate friend of your family, as I have given you so much sorrow by my fault.3
As a matter of course I do not expect you to collect seaweeds in any large quantity for me, but you may perhaps be so friendly to lay a few occasionally aside & for any discovery you shall duely have the credit. Dr Harvey writes that with his work (phycologia, which I believe you have complete) he intends abolishing4 algology. But three other deer friends, Prof Areschoug of Upsala, M. Lénormand of Vire (Calvados) & Dr Sonder of Hamburg are great algologists & will work up any novelties, if I do it not even myself. If you desire me to send you any paper or anything else, pray command it unhesitatingly When Mr Smith started a second time I was reflecting, what little presents I could send you, but I could not think of any thing at the moment you might value. — For the graceful & hospital5 manner, in which Mr & Mrs Haffie6 & yourself I must feel the more obliged, as I did not deserve so much benignity from you
With kindest regards
yr
Ferd Mueller
I had two letters from Sir Will Hooker,7 full of expressions of almost paternal kindness. He lost christmas eve his deerest friend,
Dr Booth,8 for 40 years near his heart. Dr B was the treasurer of L.S.9 & meritorious bot. author To Lady Smith now 92 years old he was an other near friend. The Lady is yet so fresh in mind & body, as to exhibit scarcely any alteration since 4010 years!
Letter not found.
Robert Fletcher (fl. 1861-8); Smith not identified, but he may have been James Smith (1820-1910), a council member of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria.
A reference to M breaking his engagement with Euphemia Henderson? See M to E. Henderson, 18 August 1863; Maroske (1997). John McHaffie was named as a trustee in Snodgrass's will; see A. Lewis (2010).
abandoning?
hospitable?
M'Haffie?
Letter not found.
i.e. Francis Boott.
Linnean Society, London.
40 after 60 deleted.
Please cite as “FVM-64-02-22,” 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