To William Hooker   21 March 1864

21/3/64

My dear Sir William

I have to thank you for your renewed token of generosity, manifested in the transmission of an other highly welcome fascicle of your great fern-work; that the finishing fascicle is also nearly completed must gratify every man of science, for no one but yourself could have brought this noble standard work satisfactory to a close.1 It now only remains for you to supplement it by whatever material may have accumulated meanwhile at Kew. In deed every Botanist ought conscientiously place for that purpose his means at your disposal. Perhaps my collector in N. E. Australia2 may also furnish you with some novelties. I looked recently over my large collection of Nov Zealand ferns & find several species in it, which Dr Hooker not enumerates in the flora of New Zealand;3 e.g. Cystopteris fragilis, Asplenium Trichomanes & Dicksonia dubia. But as Dr Hooker has no doubt received all these from the Southern Islands it will be useless for me to send these plants. My N.Z. herbarium comprises however about 30 large fascicles & when the "manuel" appears I can furnish the supplemental material.4 Perhaps however Dr Hooker on applying to Dr Hochstetter in Vienne might receive his herbarium of NZ plants, which I believe has species from some places not yet visited by other naturalists.5

I intend to send by this mail the whole 4 vol[s] of my works here published for your kind acceptance, as I believe you received never bound copies.6

Trusting that you are in the enjoyment of perfect health I remain,

dear Sir William,

your attached

Ferd Mueller

 

I was delighted to see the Mimulus repens at last introduced7 It is not likely that it ever will be lost again in Europe. Did I ever say that we have here the highest treeferns of the Globe. Alsophila Australis is not rarely 40' high on the slopes in very deep forest ravines and I am assured that this fern is found near Sealers Cove 60' high; nay some say (but I believe in exaggeration) 80'.

 

Alsophila Australis

Asplenium

Cystopteris fragilis

Dicksonia dubia

Mimulus repens

Trichomanes

 
1
Hooker (1846-64).
2
John Dallachy.
3
Hooker (1853-5).
4
Hooker (1864-67).
5
No evidence of such an application has been found.
6
Presumably the first 4 volumes of Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae . The volumes in the library at RBG Kew are inscribed to Bentham, except volumes 7 and 9 which have no inscriptions in the bound copies.
7
Illustrated in Curtis's botanical magazine, 1864, 90, pl. 5423: 'Discovered by Mr Brown at Port Jackson; but it extends to Victoria (whence seeds were sent to us by Dr Mueller, 1862)'.

Please cite as “FVM-64-03-21,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/64-03-21