From Joseph Hooker   31 July 1866

Kew July 31/66.¹

My dear Mueller

I herewith sent bill of lading for box per Sussex.

I note your want of Fern spores, which shall be attended to.²

I thought I had sent you ripe seeds of the Dracaena Draco³ last winter, surely I did. I shall now send you more that will I hope still germinate, & put some fine young plants in a Wards case for you to go by first opportunity.

The Manihot I send are dried up, & others shall follow

Autumn Crocus also sent, & more shall follow.⁴

I have no copies of the Synopsis Filicum⁵ but will get one and send it by post. The work is not in my hands — Mr Baker will continue it, & it remains to be seen whether the publisher will give him any presentation copies. This is becoming a greater difficulty than ever with publishers who (truly enough) say, that we give our works to the very persons who would otherwise buy, & these are few enough. We get no presentation copies of the Colonial Floras. I buy all I give away myself of the New Zealand Handbook.⁶

I wish that your friends who return to your part of the world would let me know when they go, that I might send small Ward's cases of live Ferns &c: but they all get so distracted with England & especially London, that I hear nothing of them.

The above mentioned plants are packed in one box (Orchids, Manihot & Crocus autumnalis) & go by a Black-ball ship The bill of lading will be sent to you

Ever Yrs

JD Hooker

Crocus autumnalis

Dracaena Draco

Manihot