To Joseph Hooker   26 June 1866

26/6/66.

Dear Dr Hooker.

This day I unpacked the case, you kindly sent by the Yorkshire. The dry plants came safely back & for the books I feel much indebted.¹ I will send those, which the library of this establishment already possesses, to Mr Hill, as you direct.² I can well understand it & sympathize from sad experience with you when you renovate your garden personal.³ Of the difficulty & anoyance arising from persons dismissed here you have in England no conception & of the cruel prosecution⁴ to which I am subjected by one part of the press you have also no conception in Britain. Even Mr Veitch's letter in Gard. Chronicle gave them an opportunity of writing a most damaging leading article against the department.⁵ My sacrifices in years & financial means have been very great to raise this establishment as the next to Kew (as a whole) under the British Crown & yet I meet such disgratitude in some directions.

I am certain, the horticultural branches of our departments could be rendered much more useful to each other than they have hitherto been. The colonial Office, I see, has kindly taken care of your packages & this encourages me so far in anticipating regular exchanges, that I have arranged for a repository in my office where from month to month such of seeds as may be useful for Kew shall be stored up. Many of my empty Wardian Cases must be still at Kew. I will undertake to refill any sent to me.

Since I wrote my last report,⁶ the whole lake scenery has been changed. I threw up four islands & a large embankment, & if you can help me by sending me a case of Bambusaceous plants, I shall soon be able to grace the whole margins with these noble reeds. I have Arundo Donax. I have only B. Arundinacea & that stands the night frosts, if well established first in a conservatory & trusted out in the spring as a strong plant.

Fortunately I have raised Papyrus from seeds. Any other Lake plant would be welcome. Could not Butomus, Sagittaria, Menyanthes, Stratiotes, Hottonia &c be raised from seed? When the earthwork on the Lake shall have been completed I will send photograms.⁷ More Orchideae will be preserved for you this season. Have you a large collection of Willows in Kew garden? We had some frost here last week stronger than ever & now I am preparing a list of the plants that suffered for my annual report. But in as much as Parliament will not meet before November, if even then, this document will not be printed before that time[.]⁸ I have now about 400 Cinchona plants under glass, & thousands of teaplants for the Ranges. Mr Hill⁹ received the seeds for his teaplantation 6 years ago from me. I hope the British Government will generously acknowledge to the son the enormous sacrifices your great father did incur to raise the noble collections of dry plants & the fine library of Kew.¹⁰ Though I am a good deal younger than yourself I even have severely felt already what it involves to establish institutions for botanical science. Had I continued an explorer & occupied as a squatter all the new country within my reach since 1847 I certainly might have accumulated hundred thousand £ & see! how useful could I then have been to science, how independent to aid all, that is great & good! Is it asking too much to favor me with a brief abstract of the average expenditure at Kew Garden & Museum? It may be useful for me here for support. That the British Museum cost about £100,000 annually is seen in various records, but I can find no information about Kew.

I shall send you soon a little Cyperus new to the flora of New Zealand. The seeds of Dracaena Draco I received with great thanks.¹¹ I am just planting half a thousand palmlike Cordylines & half a thousand true palms on the slopes facing the Yarra in view of the city & transferred about 100 ferntrees! some 20' high to a reclaimed piece of land within a sheltered shrubbery. How can the Manihot be best brought to Australia?

You will see the Alsophila Rebeccae has no hemiteloid involucre. I am so glad, that your vigorous & intelligent practical Curator, Mr Smith, will help me here in so spirited a manner. I will gladly reciprocate. I am very sad to hear that poor Harvey is so unwell. He overworked himself & did not sufficiently mix outdoor exercise & duties with indoor studies.

You have really electrified me with the promise of all the good things to come.¹² I have no private purpose to serve. I have no family & did I die to morrow I would have no heirs to derive any benefit from my past exertions. In sending any thing to my department you serve solely the interest of Victoria. The 5 vol. of the fragmenta will be concluded before the end of the year. On the somewhat saline banks of my lake Glaux maritima would grow. So seeds would be most acceptable. I will send turfs of Selliera radicans & of the Mesembryanthemum. — Of the Xanthorrhoea minor I can send a large lot if you desire it.

The "genera plantarum" will be a noble monument of your & Mr Benthams unique knowledge & activity.¹³ If you finally furnish a supplement volume, there will be a work for ever, because not many true genera will be discovered afterwards, unless in tropical Africa.

Your always regardfully attached

Ferd. Mueller

Alsophila Rebeccae

Arundo Donax

Bambusa Arundinacea

Butomus

Cordyline

Dracaena Draco

Glaux maritima

Hottonia

Manihot

Menyanthes

Mesembryanthemum

Orchideae

Papyrus

Sagittaria

Selliera radicans

Stratiotes

Xanthorrhoea