WCP2292

[1]^1,2

Kew

Nov 26/[18]72

Dear Mr Wallace

By all means use my name & send my card to Mueller.³ Entre nous, do not forget the Baron Von — he is as vain as peacock. —

I shall be glad to hear if you succeed with any of the Australian alpines. We have failed with [2] them uniformly & even with the Tasmanians of 4000 — 5000 ft.!. I have had them put out of all ages, 1 — 6 year old plants, w by hundreds — none has stood 2 years without protection. The late frosts of spring are worse enemies than the ordinary winter cold.

Among [1 illeg. word] of all the many green trees I have tried, the only [3]⁴ one that has lived is a hot[?]⁵ Adelaide one. It has been twice shifted, & twice cut to the ground by frost — but is still alive!. It is the damp cold with[?] a[?] cold soil that these things do not like.

So too of New Zealand things, but one has succeeded in the open air, Pittosporum tenuifolium;⁶ all the rest are killed off. I am now shy of [4] trying them, as when the public sees a plant sick or misses it, it is attributed to bad cultivation at once!

I was glad to see you at the Linnean, the only place now where I foregather with friends.

Ever y[ou]r | J. D. Hooker^7,8 [signature]