To Joseph Hooker   22 November 1881

[22 November 1881]1

 

I have a chronologic list of the genera of all Australian plants under the press2 but shall not likely be able to send it before february It includes also the cryptogames, so the list will comprise nearly 2000 Genera. We all look forward with deep interest to your & Benthams finishing volume of the genera;3 had either of you not done anything else, it would raise a grand Monument for you at all times, as your genera must be for ever on the table of all Botanists! —

I have not yet got to the sorting of my duplicates for Kew &c, but the Exhibition4 has driven everything back, so much so that I have not even brought out a single part of the Eucalyptography in 1881.

Your position at the Brit Associat in the geographic Section was quite a proud one, & your essay or adress excellent.5

Last evening I attended as acting President (or Senior Vice Pres) a splendid Concert of the Liedertafel, at which our Conductors magnificent Cantata to Longfellows Orion was for the first time produced.6 On my request a special full copy of the Music will be made out for presentation to Mr Longfellow, of whose poetry I am a great admirer, and as Dr Asa Gray is a friend of his, I shall forward this music to Kew,7 so that he may present it to his illustrious countryman, this course taking away any air of intrusiveness.

I have been President for several years of the Liedertafel

Dr Rudall is president now [—] we gave him credentials to the British Medical Congress from the Med. Association here, of which I am an ordinary member8

I have instructed Mr Webb to send you a gin-case full of Andersonias packed horizontally only with their natural moisture between layers of Cladonia retipora (common at KGS),9 to nail down the lid10 and put the box in a cool place into the hold of the vessel as ordinary good. I believe, the plants would endure the 6 week imprisonment quite well, but it would then require great care to pot them & establish them in a cold frame. —

If any Ship, which brings frozen meat from Australia took a few plants,11 they would arrive probably well without trouble. I will see, what can be done in that way.

I have written to all my correspondents, who have Cycadeae within fair reach, on behalf of Mr Dyer,12 for his important work, & you may rest assured, that whatever is attainable for me shall pass on to him, but it is a matter of time & expense.

 

Andersonia

Cladonia retipora

Cycadeae

 
1
editorial addition.The Liedertafel concert to which M refers was held on 21 November 1881. See also M's annotation on J. Hooker to M, 25 September 1881.
2
B82.13.08.
3
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83).
4
International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1880-1.
5
J. Hooker (1882).
6
Julius Siede's cantata to Longfellow's 'Occultation of Orion' was never published. However, a full score and also a vocal score are preserved in the Liedertafel Collection, Grainger Museum, University of Melbourne.
7
In retirement, Asa Gray spent a year in Europe, 1880-1. See also M to A. Gray, 27 March 1882.
8
James Rudall represented the Victorian Branch of the British Medical Association during a tour of America and Europe in 1881.
9
King George Sound, WA.
10
only … lid is marked with a line in the margin.
11
If any … plants is marked with a line in the margin.
12
W. Thiselton-Dyer.

Please cite as “FVM-81-11-22,” 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 2 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/81-11-22