From Joseph Hooker1    1873

[…]2 As to the International Exhibition; I have not even seen it & I doubt if I shall. I have no time whatever now to attend to these matters. I believe it will be annual but I think the public interest in these Exhibitions is fast waning.3

Booth has not sent for his Cycas yet, one of the two is growing I hope, at least it is swelling at the top. The other shows no signs of life yet. The 12 ft. tree fern (Dicksonia) is doing well, but the 20 ft Alsophilla I despair of. The Todea is in superb order. Xanthorrhoea quadrangulata is flowering.

The little box of K.G. Sound4 plants arrived last week, all dead. That Calico plan of roofing does not answer for any thing I find.

We are very busy now with the Flora of British India5 of which I hope to send you Pt II in a month at the outside. Bentham is at Mimoseae for Martius Flora6 after which he will proceed to the concluding volume of the Flora Australiensis.7 He is remarkably well & very busy with the change of apartments of the Linn. Soc.; which will have him splendidly housed at Burlington House.8 How I wish that we could welcome you there — but I suppose that you have no intention of taking a holiday & visiting England.9

Boronia megastigma is flourishing, so our Australia shelves will [bear] a lasting testimony to your services to Scientific Horticulture.10

Ever my dear Mueller

Most sincerely your

Jos. D Hooker.

 

Alsophilla

Boronia megastigma

Cycas

Dicksonia

Mimoseae

Todea

Xanthorrhoea quadrangulata

 
1
MS is embossed with the crest of 'Royal Gardens Kew'.
2
An unknown amount of text missing.
3
London International Exhibition, 1873. International exhibitions were held annually in London, 1871-4.
4
King George Sound, WA.
5
J. Hooker (1875-97 [i.e. 1872-97]).
6
The final part of Bentham (1859-1876), 'Leguminosae, III: Mimoseae', was published on 1 July 1876 as vol. 15, part 2, pp. 257-504.
7
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7.
8
The Linnean Society occupied its new rooms in Burlington House, London, at the end of October 1873.
9
but …holiday is marked with a pencilled line in the margin.
10
shelves … Horticulture is marked with a pencilled line in the margin.

Please cite as “FVM-73-00-00c,” 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 23 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/73-00-00c