To William Carruthers   12 July 1886

12/7/86

 

In first instance, dear Mr Carruthers, let me offer my best felicita-1 to your being raised to the Presidentship of the now venerable Linnean Society, which as a worthy successor of Smith, Brown, Bentham, Lubbock, and so many other illustrious men you will hold with so much dignity! So it will fall to your share, to preside at the Society’s centenary Jubilee!2 You being still young, I trust you will hold this highly distinguished position through very many years, like some of your predecessors.3

It was me, who moved for a joint antarctic Committee here, to give the Home Committee some help; and it was also on my proposition, that our Senior Naval Explorer, Capt Pascoe, was made chairman here.

I have done all preliminaries in sorting and arranging Mr Forbes plants, and have just elaborated his Sterculiae with other Papuan species from various sources.4

You and Mr Ridley will be doubtless able to utilize the msc, sent two weeks ago, on Vaccinieae; and I anticipate, that Mr Britten will be glad, to publish it with such notes, as you may append.5

With regardful

remembrance your

Ferd von Mueller.

 

I hope to make soon good progress with Mr Forbes’s plants, particularly as his specimens become completed in many instances by what I had from others.

1
Word, at end of line, has not been completed.
2
24 May 1888.
3
William Carruthers was elected President of the Linnean Society of London on 24 May 1886, and served for four years (Gage & Stearn [1988], p. 219).
4
See B86.08.03.
5
James Britten was the editor of the Journal of botany, in which M’s descriptions appeared (B86.10.01). The following note is included: 'In a letter accompanying the above descriptions, Baron von Mueller has asked me to compare them with the larger series of Mr Forbes’s specimens received at the British Museum, and to add any additional characters which these might supply. I find scarcely anything to supplement his description, but with regard to Agapetes Forbesii it may be noted that the peduncles are contracted. Mr. Forbes’s No. 768 (from Mount Wori-Wori, 5000 ft.) also belongs to this species. — W. Fawcett.'

Please cite as “FVM-86-07-12,” 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 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/86-07-12