To Joseph Hooker   4 May 1884

4/5/84

 

It gladdened my mind, dear Sir Joseph, to learn from your letter of 19 March, 1 that Mr Bentham became somewhat invigorated; and as meanwhile the mild spring air has set in there, let us entertain a hope, that our venerable friend will rally after the lengthened repose, and will be spared us yet for years, if not for renewed work, at all events for calm andjoyful contemplation of theresults of his great labours.

I am sending to Mr Bentham and yourself the 9th Dec. of the Eucalyptogr. 2 by this post; altho’ it was out at the end of last year, it is only now, that the new arrangement for distribution of Vict. Gov. publications comes into working order. 3 The 10th Decade is ready since some time, but I like to accompany it by some general key, which is not yet completed. 4

I am pleased, that my short remarks, which accompanied your picture in the illustrated Australian News, 5 proved gratifying to you. Prof Asa Gray, in the [neat] publication has done you fuller justice. 6 This is a good opportunity to enquire, what I long since wished to do, whether Sir Joseph Banks was sponsor at your baptism? 7 Our birthdays are precisely of the same date, as you might have seen in Burke or Debrett. 8 It has been a consolation to me, to see you stand up for my gardening achievements. 9 For 17 years I did more for horticulture than for Botany! Thus I feel it all the more deeply, that the person who by an extraordinary concurrence of circumstances became Administrator of the bot-Garden, 10 ignores studiously all my toil, and purposely changes everything, merely for the sake of defacing all that had been done before him. I am satisfied, that the collection of plants is not so rich as at my time of Administration, notwithstanding of his having been allowed to spend over £100 000 in 10 years, and notwithstanding of his having the benefit of several good gardeners, trained for special work by me. All this, together with loss of house, laboratory &c has fallen so ruinously on me, that even the hopes for domestic happiness became destroyed, so that it is or cannot be a wonder, when I am bitter now, and feel very sorry, that I did not continue in the field of geogr. exploration with all the concomitant pastoral advantages at a time of chances, such as never can reoccur.

Sir Henry Loch, to judge by his military and political Career, must be a sterling man; as he was your Minister, he will have some idea what a bot. Garden ought to be; 11 - and his Excellency may perhaps take an interest in the resuscitation of my Department, especially as the leading journal here seems now to recognize the deep and undeserved injury, done me. 12

Yesterday the Oriental Bank suspended payment. 13 I had just paid in the salary for April, and as I live from hand to mouth, I do not know how to get through May, having not even yet paid fully for my little office building, and having no resources except the salary. Gladly will I send you a couple of dozen stems of fern-trees; the freight, I hope, you will have means to defray there. You must have derived great pleasure in Petersburg at the international horticultural Exhibition, or perhaps Mr Dyer went. 14 I presume you both cannot get away together.

The inaugural adress of which I beg to enclose a print, 15 was read on my behalf, as my pulmonary sufferings did not allow of my attending the meeting, though I accepted after a first refusal at last the local Presidency of the new Geograph. Society of Australia, having in my unprosperous state declined the principal Presidency in Sydney, considerately offered me. I am under the roof of a medical friend, Dr Büttner, a splendid man in the profession, who offered me his hospitality and advise in a magnificent house of his own where I have fitted myself temporarely for office-work. 16 I inhale now especially at night carbolic acid vapor from an atomizer; if I get through the winter here, I intend to spend two of the best months of the spring in the Murray-Desert, before the great heat sets in; some little bot. work is there yet to be done for Victoria in places formerly not accessible.

Trusting that your health remains firm and that you are in the enjoyment of every happiness of life, I remain, dear Sir Joseph,

your regardful Ferd. von Mueller

 
1
M has misread the date of J. Hooker to M, 14 March 1884.
2
B83.13.07.
3
See M to J. Hooker, 2 March 1884.
4
No botanical keys were issued with the 10th Decade, B84.13.09, but a number of indexes and general material referring to the whole work were included.
5
A full-page article about Hooker, including a portrait, was published in the Melbourne Leader, 3 June 1882, suppl., p. 1. A copy of the article has not been found in the Illustrated Australian News. See also M to J. Hooker, 23 January 1884.
6
Gray (1877)..
7
Hooker was given the name ‘Joseph’ after his grandfather Hooker (Desmond, 1999).
8
Biographical directories, published at regular intervals.
9
In J. Hooker to M, 14 March 1884, Hooker reports that he wrote to William Guilfoyle that ‘the absence of any allusion to your predecessor, & the former of the collection, both surprized & pained me’.
10
William Guilfoyle.
11
Henry Loch was not a Government Minister, but was a Commissioner of Woods and Forests and Land Revenue from 1882 (ODNB), until appointed as Governor of Victoria, which post he assumed on 15 July 1884. The Royal Botanic Gardens Kew were responsible to the Commission from 1840 to 1903.
12
M may be referring to a very sympathetic article published in the Leader , 9 February 1884, p. 14 .
13
The Bank was an imperial bank with businesses in many parts of the world, ‘with special concentration in Ceylon. … It had lent heavily to the depressed coffee industry. The bank’s announcement of severe losses in April 1884 caused a run on some of its branches, forcing it to close’ on 3 May 1884 (Schuler [1992], p. 57). ‘The Victorian Government insisted on priority for debts owed to it, at the expense of note holders and depositors’ (Fitz-Gibbon & Gizycki [2001], p. 21).
14
An international botanical congress was held in St Petersburg, 5–15 May 1884. The ‘membres’ for Britain are listed as Colonel H. J. Elwes (the Government delegate) and R. I. Lynch (curator, Cambridge Botanic Garden); see Bulletin de Congrès international…, (1884).
15
This was probably a preprint of B85.13.25; however there is no copy in the volumes of M’s Opuscula at Kew.
16
where . . . office-work is written in the left margin on the front of the second folio of the MS (f. 92 of the volume), its position in the text indicated by asterisks.

Please cite as “FVM-84-05-04,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/84-05-04