To Joseph Hooker   6 October 1872

Melbourne bot Garden

6/10/72.

 

As I have neither leisure nor tranquillity of mind, dear Dr Hooker, to write at length, I only enclose a few articles from our journals to give you, as a honored colleague, an insight into the cruel and undeserved persecution, to which I have been subjected.1 I deeply sympathize with yourself, and never believed it possible that you, the master of us all in official life, should have encountered such a series of difficulties in your own lofty position, when it came to you with the halo of your father's illustrious name, arisen in the last century already. Your difficulties however have been but little compared to mine, and I have no Earl Derby to defend me in a House of Lords. It is utterly incomprehensible to me, why Prof. Owen should be antagonistic to yourself. Great as he is — uncomparably great — as a palaeontologic and anatomic zoologist, the illustrious man can not possibly be a judge also of a phytographic Department or of a Museum of industrial vegetable objects.2 I am all the more sad, as I stand in so friendly a relation to Owen.

The 1. volume on Indian plants has reached me by last mail.3 I am grateful for it, as I hope — after I am fully restored in my Department and have made good again the losses of the last three years, to work with renewed vigour on the northern plants of Australia. The new volume of genera4 will be a still greater boon, and a monument (lasting too) of your undominable zeal even under the most discouraging circumstances. I am very much dissatisfied with Mr Edward Wilson for his standing apparently alo[o]f, while my work and my Department are ruined by 2 or 3 low underlings in his employ, and you may imagine my feelings when I see my fair fame sullied by his journals all over the world.5 Can your good friend, Charl Darwin, who is a near neighour of Edw. Wilson, not reason with him.6 What will an admiring posterity say when turning over the pages of these journals twenty years hence. Is that acting in the interest of this country and worthy of a leading paper! I shall not be able to contribute much to the London & Vienne Exhibition, as my votes are half swept away and this I have mainly to adscribe7 to Wilson’s papers or rather to two or three unprinsipled persons thereon. Indeed the votes (exclusive of my own starvation income) are now reduced to £2000 - - while the wages here are one shilling an hour, and there is no water except by using steam power. Be it enough! If I only had been so wise 20 years ago, to purchase with my means a sheep-station, instead of accepting this appointment and sinking all my time and all my property into it.

With deep regards always

your

Ferd von Mueller

 

I hope the transit of the large living Cycas stem will be a success.8 There is an other ferntree for you in the "Shannon" which noble ship left a few days ago. The last with conservatory plants per Niagara came well.9 Accept my best thanks.

 

Cycas

1
Cuttings of a number of newspaper articles are preserved in a guard book (RBG Kew, Miscellaneous reports, Melbourne, Mueller, 1853-96). Not all are labelled by title of the paper from which they came.
2
See J. Hooker to M, 20 November 1872, and MacLeod (1974).
3
Hooker (1875-97). vol. 1, part 1 (i.e. pp. 1-208) was published in May 1872.
4
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83). Volume 2, part 1 was under preparation, see J. Hooker to M, 22 June 1972.
5
The Argus regularly published a 'Summary for Europe'. The summary published on 10 September 1872 (pp. 1S–4S) contained a report on the decision to split M's responsibilities into three, and commented: 'it is hoped that under the new regime the Botanic Gardens may make more creditable appearance than they have for some time past.' The preceding 'Summary for Europe', 16 July 1872, had carried a report of the meeting between the Minister of Lands, M and William Ferguson: 'it seemed pretty evident that since Mr. Ferguson had been appointed to the practical charge of the gardens he had ignored the director, and that the director had ignored him; while, in the meantime, the gardens had been retarded and not improved' (p. 1S).
6
Edward Wilson settled at Hayes, Kent, in 1868 and died there in 1878. Hayes is about 6 Km NNW of Downe, Darwin's village.
7
ascribe?
8
See M to J. Hooker, 7 August 1872.
9
Niagara arrived in Melbourne on 20 September (Argus, 21 September 1872, p. 5). It is not know what plants were consigned to M.

Please cite as “FVM-72-10-06,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/72-10-06