[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 here8 & other extrawork has deprived me of time for phytographic studies recently.
your attached
Ferd von Mueller
Trichinium
Eucalyptus polyanthemos
Nymphaea alba
Nuphar luteum
Rubus
The date is unclear; it appears to be 6 written over 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.
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 (registration no. NU 33524).
The reference to Nottingham implies that M is referring to Hooker's lecture on ‘Insular floras’ delivered on 27 August 1866 at the Nottingham Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science; Hooker was one of the Vice-Presidents of the Association for 1866-67 and also a Vice-President of Section D — Biology. The lecture 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). It was also printed in parts in the Gardener's chronicle as J. Hooker (1867), and many years later issued as a pamphlet, J. Hooker (1896) (see Williamson (2008)).
M’s reference, to Trichinium zeyheri from South Africa, is under Psilotrichum capitatum (B59.12. 02, p. 238). See also Bentham (1863-78), vol. 5, p 217.
That is, one collected by Carl Ludwig Philipp Zeyher.
See M to J. Hooker, 23 March 1866 (in this edition as 66-03-23a), and M to J. Hooker, 20 August 1866 (in this edition as 66-08-20b).
The Horticultural Society of Victoria’s annual garden show was held in the Botanic Garden, 7-10 November 1868, with a major exhibit supplied by the Garden itself; see Argus, 10 November 1868, p. 7.
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