From Joseph Hooker1    4 March 1888

The Camp.

Sunningdale.

March 4 /88

My dear Baron

I thank you very heartily for your kind letter of congratulations of 4/1/88.2 The Copley Medal was an honor which I can truly say I never contemplated being ever nominated for;3 and in my old age I felt that I had been rewarded enough & to spare — I do hope your turn of the R. S. honors may not be delayed — I hope I need not say that your name has not escaped my recommendation4 — but as you are aware, where all classes of Scientific men have to be considered, it is not easy to balance claims.

Thanks again for your notice of Brian.5 I am sincerely sorry to see him going in for speculations in Gold mining in Queensland. His position under the Govt. is so honorable that he should be content with it. He is he informs me engaged to be married to a Melbourne lady.

Yes, the task of a Lamarckian key is enormously difficult.6 I have tried it myself — but when I have done so I have thrown affinity to the wind, finding it impossible to correlate artificial & natural characters.

I cannot encourage you to hope that your attempt will meet with the recognition that its labor & merit deserve — from the simple but lamentable fact that Systematic work is ignored in the present condition of Botany. The Flora of British India is ignored, & I am not aware of any comments on the many reforms introduced into the Natural Orders in the Gen. Plant. The Orders Coniferae, Coniferae 7 & Rubiaceae Melastomaceae &c are completely remodelled as are many others. For my own part I never look for recognition or acknowledgement of such labors.

We are still mourning A Gray's death;8 he & Mrs Gray spent last summer in Europe, & made a tour with us in Normandy, & he left this house for his home at the end of September in perfect health. I had known him intimately since 1858. You will find a notice of him by now in "Nature"9 —

I am in hopes that you may still get more New Guinea collections to describe. — they seem to come slowly in, & Forbes last expedition to have been a failure.

I am very sorry that you can give no better account of your health, & do hope that it will soon be restored — there is so much work still to be done —

With regard to Nablonium, no doubt you are right, & that Bauer's plants are all King's Island, which I had probably then regarded as appertaining to the S. Australian Flora.10

Ever my dear Baron

Sincerely yr

Jos. D. Hooker

 

Coniferae

Melastomaceae

Nablonium

Rubiaceae

1
MS black edged.
2
Letter not found.
3
The Copley Medal is generally seen as the highest honour awarded by the Royal Society of London.
4
See M to P. Sclater, December 1887.
5
Hooker's son.
6
M was struggling with the preparation of B88.11.02; see Lucas, Maroske, and Brown-May (2006), pp 46–50.
7
word repeated.
8
Asa Gray died on 30 January 1888.
9
Hooker's obituary of Gray appeared in Nature, 16 February 1888, pp. 375-7.
10
The letter with M’s comment has not been found . Hooker (1855–60), vol. 1, p. 190 states that the distribution of Nablonium calyceroides is ‘South coast of Australia, Bauer. ’ M's comment to Hooker probably resulted from his preparing B89.13.12, in which (p. 140) he showed this species with a Tasmanian distribution.

Please cite as “FVM-88-03-04,” 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 24 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/88-03-04