To Joseph Hooker   15 October 1886

15/10/86.

 

Best thanks, dear Sir Joseph, for sending part XIII of the Flora of British India.1 It is delightful, to see such a work nearing its completion, each part containing so much original research, your own portion being particularly masterly. I have Polygonum plebejum2 from some few parts of South Europe as indigenous also. Several of the Indian sp. extend also to Australia. So my Helicias came too late;3 perhaps you will deal with them at the end of the volume.

Your son Brian has got an appointment from the Government of Queensland.4 I fancy, Dr Mein’s brother helped in that, as he is a member of the present Ministry in Brisbane.5

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.

 
 

Polygonum plebejum

Helicia

1
The guardbook in which this letter is filed contains distribution lists of the parts of Hooker (1875-97), with date of despatch. M appears in all lists up to XXI, despatched 1 May 1896 (f. 52), where his name is crossed through on the list of recipients. No other acknowledgements of receipt from M have been filed in this location; but see, for example, M to J. Hooker, 6 October 1872, 28 November 1878 and 2 October 1885.
2
P. plebeium?
3
M named a number of Helicia spp. from 1857 onwards; Hooker was unlikely to have seen descriptions of H. sayeriana (B86.11.01, p. 93), and H. forbesiana (B86.09.05, p. 63) when he was preparing the section on Proteaceae; he could not have seen H. cameroni (B89.13.11, p. 7). Hooker made no reference to any of M’s species in his treatment of Helicia.
4
Mineralogical Lecturer for the Qld Dept of Mines at Gympie, Maryborough and Bundaberg, 1886-9.
5
Charles Stuart Mein was Qld's Postmaster General from June 1884 and then Secretary for Public Instruction from 3 January 1885 until he resigned on 17 April 1885 when appointed a judge. He was not the brother of Dr George Augustus Mein to whom M introduced Brian Hooker (ADB; M to Joseph Hooker, 2 October 1885). See also W. Elliott to M, 3 August 1878.

Please cite as “FVM-86-10-15a,” 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 24 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/86-10-15a