From Joseph Hooker1    4 December 1891

April 12/91

The Camp,

Sunningdale .

My dear Baron

I have little doubt but that your Rubiaceous plant has dimorphic flowers, & that you will find the explanation of it in Mr Clarke's paper in the Journal of the Linnean Society XVII. 159 &311.2

I have this morning received your account of the Tasmanian Thismia 3 - it is really like a dream: surely any preconceived idea of that genus turning up there would have been scouted by every reasoning botanist who heard it. Had it been found fossilized only it would have revolutionized the former climate of the southern hemisphere!

Vy sincerely yr

Jos D Hooker.

Thismia

1
MS found with the type of Thismia rodwayi F.Muell. (MEL 224473).
2
Clarke (1880, 1880a). No letter seeking Hooker’s views on such a plant has been found, nor has the plant been identified.
3
B90.12.01.

Please cite as “FVM-91-12-04,” 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 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/91-12-04