To Joseph Hooker   13 July 1870

13/7/70

 

As an experiment, dear Dr Hooker, I beg to send you by this mail some roots of Arthropodium strictum Br. (2) (A laxum Sieber), Burchardia umbellata, (4) Caesia corymbosa, (6) and Anguillaria dioica, (or better Wurmbea dioica) (6). The later plant is our earliest harbinger of the spring and now thus already in flowers. The others are only in leaf,1 and it may be, that they will be so retarded in their growth by being taken out of the ground, as to push only flower stems after they are repotted. In your Flora Tasmanica2 is no mention made, that these plants are at Kew cultivated, nor are any plates occurring in the Bot. Magazine. Thus I hope to bring these lovely plants to horticultural honor. If your stay in Tasmania fell into the spring months you must have admired the charm of these plants, when gregariously seen over all the meadows during the spring days.3 I believe they will all be hardy in the milder parts of Britain, particularly Burchardia & Wurmbea, which luxuriate at our Glacier regions.

With my best wishes

Ferd. von Mueller

 

Anguillaria dioica

Arthropodium laxum

Arthropodium strictum

Burchardia umbellata

Caesia corymbosa

Wurmbea dioica

1
There is a vertical line in the left margin against the passage (A. laxum ... in leaf’.
2
J. Hooker (1855-60).
3
Joseph Hooker was in Tasmania twice, once in spring, 16 August-12 November 1840, and once in autumn, 6 April-7 July 1841.

Please cite as “FVM-70-07-13,” 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 18 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/70-07-13