To Joseph Hooker   6 November 1868

[6]/11/681

 

I have to thank you, dear Dr Hooker, for a precious present of the volume of poor Harvey's genera.2 I cultivate here so many South African plants, that the volume is to me of enormous value. The medaillon of your lamented father I shall place with my best treasures.3 I have also to acknowledge the receipt of a print of your ingenious adress, delivered in the proud position from the Chair at Nottingham.4

Some years go I removed (in a note in the Fragmenta) the S African Trichinium from the true Australian species, with which it is not congeneric.5 I had occasion to examine a Zeyherian specimen.6 It is curious, that the Eucalyptus polyanthemos from warm low land localities should live through a British winter, when alpine species perish. I believe a valley in the South of England would suit all these plants. Perhaps geological conditions have also to be studied.

Of your waterplants only Nymphaea alba & Nuphar luteum have as yet grown. - I cannot but think however, that all others would finally be raised, if we persevere, because the seed is not always fertile or the locality of culture not always in first instance correctly chosen.

Of Rubus I have 7 species through your kindness, but scarcely one of your willows arrived safely.7

A case with plants for Mr Bentham is almost ready, but the Great Horticultural Exhibition here & other extrawork has deprived me of time for phytographic studies recently.

your attached

Ferd von Mueller

 

Trichinium

Eucalyptus polyanthemos

Nymphaea alba

Nuphar luteum

Rubus

1
The date is unclear; it appears to be 6 written over2.
2
Harvey (1868). A copy in the Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne is inscribed by J. Hooker: “Dr Mueller FRS | With the Editors sincere Regards’. No covering letter from Hooker to M has been found.
3
Hooker had sent M a Wedgwood medallion of his father. M subsequently gave it, along with a number of his medals, to the Public Library; see M to R. Barry, 5 September 1872. The medallion is now at the Melbourne Museum.
4
Almost certainly a preprint of Hooker (1869), his presidential address at the Norwich meeting of the British Association of the Advancement of Science delivered on 19 August 1868. However the reference to Nottingham may mean that M is referring to Hooker (1867), his lecture on ‘Insular floras’ delivered at a general meeting on 27 August 1866. This was not published as part of the report of that meeting but was abstracted at length in Journal of botany, vol. 5, pp 23-31 (1 January 1867).
5
M’s reference, probably to Trichinium zeyheri from South Africa, has not been located. See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 5, p 217.
6
That is, one collected by Carl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher.
7
Se M to J. Hooker, 23 March 1866 (in this edition as 66-03-23a) and 20 August 1866 (in this edition as 66-08-20b).

Please cite as “FVM-68-11-06a,” 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 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/68-11-06a