To Joseph Hooker   31 March 1868

Melbourne bot Garden

[31/3]1/68

 

At the eve of the departure of the mail, dear Dr Hooker, I just get the bill of loading for the case of Goodeniaceae &c, shipped by you pr Wave of Life.2 Only by next mail I will be able to let you know, whether the contents came back uninjured. I look forward with great interest to the arrival of the proof sheets of the 4th volume of the Flora.3

Trusting you and your family are well I remain with regardful salutation

your

Ferd. von. Mueller

 

Dr Schlotthauber in Goettingen asked me repeatedly for years for seeds of Dactylis caespitosa. Yours from the Shetland Islands are just germinating. Whether I shall finally succeed with the plant I do as yet not know. But as it is far more easy to get the seed of the Tussokgrass from the Shetland than the Falkland Islands I venture to ask you, to cause some seeds to be sent to Dr Schlotthauber, at any time when you send to Dr Sonder, or to Prof Bartling or Prof Grisebach[.] When Mr M'Crae sends the tree seeds to the Shetland Islands he might easily arrange getting the seeds.4

5When writing to you by the Great Britain I omitted to send the memorandum for Capt Grey for delivery of the two Boxes. I trust this omission will not be of any serious consequence, as I sent an inventory by the Ship.

Mr Bentham has as yet not informed me, when he is likely to require the material for the 5th volume. I propose to send Euphorbiaceae and Laurineae first, but do not like to part with them until they are really required in order that I may not be necessarily long here without them, when frequent occasions arise for reference.

To Maxwell I explained fully what he ought to send to Kew, when he was with me in W.A. He is very reliable, and I think he will satisfy you, though I must remark that he is not a strict adherent to the principles of the tea-totallers6 Society.

Is Mr Oldfield still in any way active?

 

Dactylis caespitosa

Euphorbiaceae

Goodeniaceae

Laurineae

 
1
Uncertain reading.
2
See G. Bentham to M, 18 January 1868.
3
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 4.
4
See M to J. Hooker, 12 March 1868.
5
The remainder of the text is from a separate sheet filed as f. 308. The reference to the Great Britain, which carried boxes 39 and 40 when it sailed on 14 March, supports this placement.
6
Teetotallers’?

Please cite as “FVM-68-03-31,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/68-03-31