To Joseph Hooker   25 June 1864

Melbourne bot Garden

25/6/64

Dear Dr Hooker.

Since forwarding to Kew other letters intended for this mail I received this day a note from Mr Travers, in which he requests me to write a letter for the Linnean Society to introduce his sons general remarks on the Chatham Islands, to be a preface to these remarks. You will have received a copy also of this paper of Mr Travers Jun., and thereby see, that it requires still the introduction of the names of certain plants, and as no indications are given I cannot do this, at the moment of the mails departure at least without referring back to New Zealand for information. As already my brief essay on the Chatham plants is under the press¹ I will render it accessible to you in time, if you would kindly carry out Mr Travers wish. But I do not think the paper should be promulgated (and perhaps better also not read) until I have finished my work. I shall in the preface allude to the principe bot. information to be derived from these notes.²

May I direct your attention to what I said about Musa Banksii in the 28 number of my Fragmenta.³ Since I have felt a desire to enquire as far as possible into the specific limits of Musae, and you could render me a valuable aid by sending me living plants of Musa rosacea & M. coccinea from Kew, which irrespective of the interest botanically attached to them would be highly valuable for my conservatory and possibly endure here in free air.

Some time since you were kind enough to promise to send me a few dissecting instruments or tools for phytolog analysis. If Mr Bentham has still any fund in hand of mine, perhaps you would kindly arrange, that I get the few things when the next case is shipped from Kew.

Your travelling companion of the Erebus, Lieut. Smith, sends his kind regards. He is a member of our Parliament, in independent fortune & father of a flourishing family.

Does Mr Bentham know, that Astartea Endlicheriana is a plant of remarkable celerity of growth. This is a fact worth recording.

Should you be able to favor us with the Musae, perhaps you could kindly arrange to send along with them any Passiflorae except quadrangularis, kermesina, caerulea & racemosa & marmorata⁴

The passionflowers are nearly all hardy here & consequently delightful plants for our garden.

From the byefollowing note you will observe that I have anew attempted to introduce some of our Australian plants of rarity into British Gardens. Capt. Tonkin received this case as an acknowledgement on my part for his succesfully bringing in the Norfolk the Salmons into Australia.⁵ The Captain is likely to take great care of the plants & may succeeed in adding some to what is in cultivation at home. If on arrival of the Norfolk you regard it worth while, to cause enquiry to be made, I feel from the obliging manner of the Captain convinced that he would readily take any other plants from Kew instead of those you may desire from his case.

With best wishes for your health & happiness

yr

Ferd Mueller

Should you possibly have named an Eurybia after Mr Travers pray substitute for the tree of Chatham Island the name Eurybia arborea.⁶ You omitted in the Flora of N.Z. DC’s E. cydonifolia (not cydoniaefolia).⁷ Where is Dr Dieffenbach now? I hope you will include Euphorbiaceae in Calyciflorae. R BR under Bennettia (in Horsfields pl. jav)⁸ has well pointed out why it should be so.

Pray send the parcel (that comes with yours) on to the Royal Hortic. Society

266 sp Austr seeds	Kew
261 - -	R.H.S.

Is seed of the large American Cattle-guord⁹ to be got in England? I refer to the one mentioned by Prof Lindley in the Gardeners Chronicle.¹⁰ Duboisia myoporoides & Vittadinia I have just from New Caledonia.

Astartea Endlicheriana

Bennettia

Calyciflorae

Duboisia myoporoides

Euphorbiaceae

Eurybia arborea

Eurybia cydoniaefolia

Eurybia cydonifolia

Musa Banksii

Musa coccinea

Musa rosacea

Passiflora caerulea

Passiflora kermesiae

Passiflora marmorata

Passiflora quadrangularis

Passiflora racemosa

Vittadinia