22/2/64
My dear Miss
Your kind lines1 reached me after Mr Fletcher & Mr Smith had started, 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.2
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 abolishing3 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 & hospital4 manner, in which Mr & Mrs Haffie5 & 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,6 full of expressions of almost paternal kindness. He lost christmas eve his deerest friend,
Dr Booth,7 for 40 years near his heart. Dr B was the treasurer of L.S.8 & 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 409 years!
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 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/64-02-22