To Joseph Hooker   24 July 1882

24/7/82.

My best acknowledgement is due to you, dear Sir Joseph, for an act of consideration of yours, of which I became only aware within the last days. It concerns a collection of mosses and some other evascular Acotyledoneae, sent to Kew from Melbourne, and collected in the Cape Otway Ranges¹ by a Mr Lucas.² I appreciate your action in the matter greatly, and Mr Lucas has now brought these plants to me, so that they can be elaborated in connection with allied species. Of course you saw, that scattering the material of one place without concert, would lead to complications, double working, increased synonymy & so forth. Besides, what I value far more, it was a tribute to my professional standing in a special public Department.

On similar matters I felt somewhat discontent with Mr Bailey, with whom I however maintain friendly relations, because unknown to me he entered into arrangements about the naming and description (if new) of his Evasculares, when he would have had quite as much credit and as much attention paid to his collections, had the³ gone with my own, whereas now clashing interests have arisen, as more than one specialist independently of others works on similar and perhaps identical material, and thus valuable time in fleet life of men of science is thrown away. I felt all the more hurt, especially as it was made here to appear in public print, that only he gave attention to cryptogamic plants, as Mr Bailey is in reality my disciple. Through my animating him to collect and especially the Evasculares, he commenced forming collections when he came to Queensland about a dozen years ago. I knew him as a young Gardener as far back as 1847 in his fathers nursery in Adelaide, where I first saw Clianthus Dampierii,⁴ Doryanthes excelsa and other remarkable Austr. plants in flower. He then for 6 years in S.A. never collected, nor for a series of years afterwards during his stay in N.Z, when he had prior to Dr Hector, Dr Haast, Mr Travers, Prof Kirk and Mr Buchanan a splendid opportunity to distinguish himself, especially as he could have the rare benefit of your superb work for study,⁵ the first that ever shed any extensive light except your antartica⁶ on the Evasculares of the S. Hemisphere. In Brisbane he was so near (within a few miles) of the jungles, that I was eager to get plants from him, especially Cryptogams, which during my few days stay there in 1855 & 1857 I could not get, and for which others had no eye. Through collecting, only then initiated, Mr Bailey got an insight into the Austr. flora & Bentham's work & also my publications helped him on. But more, I have often sat at late night-hours to name plants for him like for dozends⁷ of other Amateur-collectors and fear I have impaired my eyesight by having done this late night work for correspondents during the last 30 years & more in Australia. He has a good eye for plants, he is assiduous, and I have aroused in him a spirit for scientific distinction & I help him on still. So only lately I described under our united authority a Bauhinia,⁸ closely allied to B. Malabarica, which he thought might be B. glaucescens (a Central American spec)[.]⁹ I do not think he discovered over a dozen actually new Phanerogams, and of these the half I named after him.¹⁰ But he has given us many new localities and sometimes better material and he is obliging. But as he has no knowledge by personal observations of the European Flora, he is apt to fall into mistakes; thus not long ago he named the cosmopolitan Salsola Kali as Kochia brevifolia, sent Zieria obcordata as a new Boronia, and Angophora as a new Eucalyptus &c. I do not mention this in an unfriendly spirit, but to point out, that it is not safe to take his data without seeing his specimens, though of course after my so much naming for him (only this month Bosistoa) he is often quite correct. The latin diagnoses, which now & then he has published, were written for him by Father Woods, which however remains unacknowledged by him publicly, so that words like pannicula occur. The Rev. Tenison-Woods however is an excellent zoologist and a hard worker among invertebrata, so much so, that on my own accord I have brought his candidature for next year at the R.S.¹¹ forward, got the signatures of all the Austr FRS.¹² whom I asked, and left matters in Sir Henry Barkly's hands, so that you, & Mr Dyer,¹³ Mr Oliver & Mr Baker could support him kindly also.¹⁴ The Curator of the bot Garden of Melbourne¹⁵ has suddenly gone to North Queensland, to the surprise of many people here, as it is just in the middle of the planting season, and for Landscape-gardening he was imported here from Sydney. He seems to have a morbid vanity to pass as a scientific man; thus lately publishing an article on Duboisia, of which he knows nothing — copying what Dr Bancroft and myself rendered known of course under suppression of my name¹⁶ as he did about Fiji plants with Dr Seemans.¹⁷ Whether he in any way intends to interfere with my working on the Austral Flora as regards North Queensland[s] I do not know; but I may mention, that I failed last year after much expenditure with the collector, introduced to me by Prof Roeper of Rostock;¹⁸ in renewing this year my effort, to make a finishing mainstroke for the flora of Australia I subsidise a zoolog. Collector, Persieh, also pay for what I get from an other countryman of mine,¹⁹ for all of whom I besides name every plant, they keeping sets, so that lots of names can be picked up by others also locally at Cooktown and elsewhere by these means. possibly such names appearing in public reports without the slightest allusion to their origin. Now, to conclude these rambling statements, Sir Joseph, I may add, that I have placed also some months ago £50 at the disposal of Mr Fitzalan, who for his nursery at Port Denison²⁰ wanted Orchids, Palms, Cordylines &c from North Queensland, so that passingly he is to gather Museum specimens also. Some novelty doubtless will come forward, but probably not very much, as at the whole vegetation is similar to that of Rockinghams Bay²¹ also on the Rivers further north.

I have for the Census of Austral plant-species²² given the supplemental collections which accumulated since the volumes of Bentham’s Flora were issued some fuller attention. Thus I have in toto 30 additional species (well marked) of Acacia, and yet but very few other the 2[9]3 are abolished by me from augmented material (A. obscura &c), but cleared up some errors. I dare say you all at Kew will find this Census acceptable as facilitating references.

Let me remain with regardful remembrance your

Ferd von Mueller.

I almost forgot to express my pleasure of Kew sending dried plants to the Brisbane Museum. I had only just written to Mr Bailey, that he could have many duplicates of N. Zealand plants but I am often out of reckoning in my time, & the making up of collections takes hours and hours of time for which there is nothing adequate to show, while at the approachig evening of my life I have to be more and more parsimonious in the disposal of my time. Mr Mitten writes,²³ that all his Mosses (therefore also what ever I sent) will finally go to Kew, and so I suppose it will be with Dr Cooke's fungs.

The practical benefit of Bailey's collecting has been that a Gov. position fairly supported was created for him.

Acacia obscura

Acotyledoneae

Angophora

Bauhinia glaucescens

Bauhinia Malabarica

Boronia

Bosistoa

Clianthus Dampierii

Cordyline

Doryanthes excelsa

Duboisia

Evasculares

Kochia brevifolia

Salsola Kali

Zieria obcordata