Aug 31 /84
My dear Baron
I must be short, as my poor Curator Smith1 has just lost his wife & has gone on leave in miserable health & Dyer2 is laid up for a few days.
I enclose another list of our Australian desiderata put into my hands by Oliver just now.
We owe you a thousand thanks for the parcel received a fortnight ago.
Your New Guinea Lycopodium is L. squarrosum.
We have had a field day over the Dendrobium herewith returned.3 It is clearly D. Gordoni Horne; but the doubt is whether it be not a form of the wide-spread D macrophyllum. I hardly think so
Oberonia Titania you will find in Folia Orchidacea ("Oberonia L. 8. no. 46 bis")4
The Gesneraceae is as you rightly say a Dichotrichum 5
The splendid collections of Fern stems have I think been acknowledged — we wanted them to grow ferns &c upon but they are in such splendid condition that we propose to grow them & try some out of door method of keeping them alive by winter protection.
Bentham is alive but bedridden & cannot even sit up in bed. — I see him weekly but he does not converse & after 5' asked me to leave. It is sad to see such an end of such a life. he will neither see people nor even be read to! —
I hope your own health is better
Ever sincerely yr
Jos D Hooker
Dendrobium Gordoni
Dendrobium macrophyllum
Dichotrichum
Gesneraceae
Lycopodium squarrosum
Oberonia Titania
Please cite as “FVM-84-08-31a,” 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 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/84-08-31a