Ere this I hope that you have received your share of J. Stuart Mill's herbarium, which his niece,1 Miss Helen Taylor, presented to Kew. On finding how many duplicates it contained, I suggested a division of it between Kew, Asa Gray (Boston, U.S.), and you, to which she at once assented, so you might label them as Asa Gray U.S.,2 Herb. J. St. Mill, presented by Miss Helen Taylor, through Dr. Hooker, Kew.3
Stepdaughter.
A slip by Hooker in duplicating the letter?
While living in France in his youth, John Stuart Mill, under the influence of George Bentham, ‘discovered the pleasures … of collecting botanical specimens [which became one of his] leisure pursuits of a lifetime' (ODNB). Bentham (1997) has scattered references to collecting with Mill. For details of the bequest, see notes to M to H. Taylor, 23 September 1876 (in this edition as 76-09-23d); see also M to J. Hooker, 23 September 1876; J. Hooker to M, 13 December 1876; and Pearce (2006).
M did not take up Hooker's suggestion as to the labelling of the sheets and the specimens at MEL can only be identified from labels in Mill's hand. This means that specimens acquired by Mill but not annotated by him cannot be positively identified as part of the donation by Helen Taylor.
Letter not found. For the text given here, see Argus, 21 September 1876, p. 5. col. c. The text is introduced by ‘The Government botanist, in a letter dated 16th July, received from Dr. Hooker, C.B., president of the Royal Society, England, and director of the Botanical-garden, Kew, finds himself a distinguished participator in a bequest made by the late John Stuart Mill to his niece. In his letter to the Baron von Mueller Dr. Hooker says:’.
Please cite as “FVM-76-07-16,” 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