P & O. St. V. Massilia
April 4 /71.
Dear Dr Mueller
I am on my way for a much needed relaxation to Tangier (via Gibraltar) where I shall spend some weeks & hope to get some good plants. I wrote you lately,1 but forgot to add that the Fraxinus you sent is either F. americana or F. viridis which are very closely allied species.2
I think I informed you that the contents of the cases by Capt Ridges were all dead except Veronica Hulkeana & Polygonum Cunninghamii. Your plan of canvas covered boxes has now uniformly failed, & I do not think it is worth the repetition; as was to be expected. The earth gets entirely burnt up during the passage through the tropics: & no doubt from want of moisture under the canvas they get burnt too. This seems to be the inevitable result. A tent is always frightfully dry & hot in the sun.3
I am very sorry to hear that your troubles regarding your position are not all over. I know from experience how difficult it is to secure & hold always the position which one would like to occupy — but these things are of the ups & downs of this world. No doubt had we turned our energies & our talents in other directions we should have made more of them — but then we should not have been so happy & contented with ourselves.
I will gladly add the title of Director to your letters4 — if I omit it, it is for brevity' sake & so long as my own letters reach me I am indifferent how they are addressed!
I am glad to hear that you are progressing with the Florula of Lord Howes' Island — I wish that you could visit that interesting group yourself.5
I am sure that we have still duplicates of America plant that would be useful to you; but the time to select them is what we want — how I wish that you could come over here & take your pick!
Bentham is working at Compositae for Genera Plantarum & I at Rubiaciae. — That rigid leaved Coprosma? with connate flowers (I forget its name) from the North is surely not of that genus
Most try yr
Jos D Hooker.
Compositae
Coprosma
Fraxinus americana
Fraxinus viridis
Polygonum Cunninghamii
Rubiaceae
Veronica Hulkeana
Letter not found.
See M to J. Hooker, 16 December 1870.
See M to J. Hooker, 10 October 1870.
See M to J. Hooker, 6 September 1870 (in this edition as 70-09-06a).
No letter from M to Hooker refering to progress with the Lord Howe Island plants has been found, but see M to G. Bentham, 22 April 1870. M had published species jointly with C. Moore in B70.04.01 and listed other species from Lord Howe Island there and in B70.12.03.
MS embossed with emblem of the Royal Gardens Kew.
Please cite as “FVM-71-04-04a,” 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