To Joseph Hooker   15 September 1879

15/9/79

 

The Governor sent me this morning, dear Sir Joseph, the circular letter of your son in law,1 respecting the seeds of Cytisus proliferus. I had it since many years in culture during my Directorship of the bot. Garden & it has produced also seeds in the public Garden of Geelong. Of course, you could not be aware of this, as the issue of my index of the plants of the Melb bot Garden was rendered impossible when 10 years ago the Forest Inspector2 invaded my place, and announced the destruction, which has gone on ever since.

I had read the praise, bestowed on this Cytisus by the Bulletin de la Société d'acclimation à Paris,3 and accordingly included this species in one of the supplements of my select plants.4 The Gardeners Chronicle had also some notes about it.5

Whether this Cytisus still exists in my former garden, I can not say; if it does, others will take unscrupulously take credit for it, just as of my Vict. regia & everything else! nor do I perceive that any one abroad has ever a kind word for me left, respecting the treasures which I accumulated at the trial of a lifetime in the bot Garden here, unless it be yourself.

Regardfully yr

Ferd von Mueller

 

I am just going into a little cottage, which I have bought through a building Society, and for which I have to pay annual instalments up to 1890.6 I have 6 rooms, all small, thus not even half enough office space, while palaces are erected for other public service Departments.

 

Cytisus proliferus

Vicoria regia

 
1
William Thiselton-Dyer. Circular letter not found, but responses from other recipients bound in the guard-book refer to 'your letter of the 18th July with packets of seeds of Cytisus Proliferus var.'
2
W. Ferguson.
3
Cytisus proliferus ('Tagasaste', native to the Canary Islands) is mentioned several times in the Bulletin de la Société d'acclimation, the most extensive treatment being Naudin (1875).
4
No entry on Cytisus iappears in the three known supplements to M’s Select plants , B74.13.06, B75.13.11 and B78.13.08. M may have planned further supplements, but the journal in which the three known supplements appeared, Proceedings of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria , ceased publication at this point. Cytisus s not listed in the 1880 Indian edition of Select plants (B80.13.07) but does appear in the next edition over which M had editorial control, B81.13.10, and in subsequent editions, with Thiselton-Dyer named as the authority.
5
For example, Gardeners' Chronicle, 13 September 1873, p. 1255, and C. Naudin's letter, 14 February 1874, pp. 213-4.
6
See M to J. Hooker, 11 September 1879 (in this edition as 79-09-11a), n. 3.

Please cite as “FVM-79-09-15,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/79-09-15