From Joseph Hooker1    19 November 1888

Cirencester

Novr. 19 /88

My dear Baron

I heartily congratulate on the announcement of a Royal Medal being awarded to you for your many long & distinguished services to Botany — long may you live to enjoy it.2

I write from the house of my son, who is a medical practitioner in this town — a very interesting one on account of its Roman remains.

I am myself quite absorbed in Indian Orchids, their num3 is legion, & I am utterly confounded at finding how little has been done by any one but Lindley towards describing any of the contents of the genera themselves. Bentham did a wonderful piece of work in describing the Order & limiting the genera, & except in isolated cases I do not see my way to any material improvement on what he did. But the species themselves are in a state of chaos that I had no conception of. No one but Lindley in his "Folia"4 seems to have attempted to classify the species of a single genus. Many have chucked many species into various genera, or made a few good & bad new genera, but species made without reference to the whole genus, especially when these are large, are too often unrecognizable. The amount of dissection I have to do is enormous, & this reminds me to ask you if you use Brownings platyscopic lenses (for the simple microscope) I find them invaluable for clearness & the immense area they cover. I get them mounted to fit the arm of my microscope. they cost 18/ each, & there are 4 powers The relief to the eyes, after the ordinary lenses I have used all my life (including doublets, triplets, Coddingtons & the compound M.) is greater than I can tell. If you send me the diameter of the ring or arm into which your lenses fit, I would get Browning to mount a couple of powers so as to fit it.

Ever sincerely yr

Jos D Hooker

MS annotation by M: 'Answ 1/1/89'. Letter not found.

M was awarded a Royal Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1888; see ‘President’s address’, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London , vol. 45, pp 55-6.

George King commented ‘What will Baron v. Muller do with the Royal Medal? The whole of his heart & half his back are already covered with decorations!’ (G. King to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 18 December 1888, RBG Kew, Directors’ correspondence, vol. 156, ff 801-2).

number?
Lindley (1852-9).

Please cite as “FVM-88-11-19,” 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 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/88-11-19