River Derwent
Hobart Town
V[an]. D[iemen's]. L[and]. [Tasmania] HMS. "Erebus"
September*1 7th 184[0]
My Dear Father*2
A post leaves this to day[sic] without my writing a letter by it to you although it carries away my long cherished collections of Kerguelen's Land Plants. I do not write by it because the next post will in all human probability make a quicker passage but write this on the occasion lest you should think laziness deterred me from addressing you. I have just been carefully perusing your long & kind letters, for the first time since their receipt for I had not the heart to do it before, your last delights me particularly though containing the sad news of our dear parents illness for its want of a black margin tells me that at home the heavy affliction of our last bereavement is modified through the lapse of so many months has naturally, from the date of their arrival here, still caused little change on my feelings. Still I have been very happy here & never before could I have so deeply felt how much the study of our mutual pursuit tends to alleviate our distress. Soon after the arrival of your letters my mess mate Yule*3 had to mourn a heavier loss, that of his father, he is a fine fellow & we both went ashore for the first time together for a walk under the trees opposite our ships. I need not tell you they were Eucalypti small trees of 2 sp[ecies] mimica? & amygdaline, the former & largest looks like a Birch from its white stems oval form & drooping branches but its evergreen leaves are much darker green & of a more harsh appearance & have all my zeal for collecting returned & though at a most unpropitious season I brought off several plants including a little Splachnum & the Mniarum Forsteri a very common tufted plant on the lawns.
You divert my attention particularly to Cryptogamia believe me that I have at Kerg[uelen]. Land strained every nerve to add to its scanty Flora in that particular. Though two months there, to the last day I went ashore Botanizing & as far as I know I have left no hole unexamined or stone unturned. My excursions were generally solitary but you cannott[sic] conceive the delight which the new discoveries afforded as they slowly revealed themselves though in many cases it was all I could do to collect from the frozen ground as much as would serve to identify a species. All these are packed in one small case now sent & very glad I shall be to hear that its contents have not altogether disappointed you. The seaweeds I laid out as well as I could their collecting was very tiresome as the water as always very cold & the heavy surf on the rocks cost me many a hearty ducking where first they appeared very beautiful but the motion of our ship in that stormy harbor[sic] prevented my laying them out as well as you would like. The duplicates such as they are shall go in Mr Gunn's*4 box. My numbers are now upwards of 700 but that includes 350 Cape plants partly given me which Capt[ain]. Ross*5 wished me to include, they are not sent as being poor things & the cutting them up improves my Cape Botany which I most need. The more I think of my former collections the more I feel they will disappoint you though I hardly know then how to improve them.

My time here has been most pleasantly & I hope profitably employed nothing has in any way interfered with my collecting nor have I accepted any of the myriads of invitations to dinners[,] balls & events that have been literally showered in upon us all. Except to the Governors I have been no where[sic] but to my constant companion's Mr Gunn almost every night I spend with him & we have had several excursions together. His time however is far too much taken up with counselling[?] & Secretary's work to devote much time (in the day) to Botany[.] He is a most excellent fellow full of enthusiasm & cares for nothing but his plants. On the first Sunday after our arrival he came on board in the morning & after service (which by the bye the Captain Regularly performs) he dined with us. Since that I go constantly to his house almost every evening at 6 when we go over plants together. We lie about a mile from Town, up the river off a fine promontory of Government ground called the Paddock a few yards from shore at 11PM I leave Mr Gunn's & pull off in a government or the guard boat a fine whale boat. Generally the weather has been very fine but for the last week there has been incessant rain now (Sept 10th) clearing away for future days like such as have past of pleasant sunshine altogether better than our Scotch summers & quite as warm. The summit of M[oun]t. Wellington is still covered with Snow to whose limits I have ascended on the fourth time that I have been partially up its flanks. I have already gathered several (what could have been new plants had Mr Gunn not arrived here lately there is still however plenty to be done here which is the only place I can visit at this season, being about the earliest place in the Colony, the interior is very cold & backward comparatively. The Captain who is now amiably[?] most kind to me allows me almost unlimited leave, & had Mr Gunn remained in the North I should have been away on 6 weeks leave to see him as it is I have two excursions in view one to the lakes in the interior which Mr G[unn]. says affords the nearest (hitherto unexplored Botanizing ground) but for the Snows & incrossable rivers is now impractacable[sic] the second to Port Arthur also quite new ground[.] I go there in a few weeks in the government yacht with Sir John*6 and Lady Franklin*7 on the latter[']s special invitation. On Saturday I join Mr Gunn on an excursion to New Norfolk (about 25 miles) for 3 or 4 days, we go on horseback sending our things & I hope though early in the season to bring back some good things. A fortnight ago I went to the Northward for 4 days passing over Grass Tree Hilll ( Xanthorrhoea) to Richmond. I picked up about 50 fl[owering]. plants some interesting but the season, winter, was of course much too early. The first night I stayed at a Mr Gregson's*8 whose wife was a great friend of Mr Selby's of Twizel house. I met there a Mrs & Major De Gillon who have adopted Dr Scott's daughter a nice little girl who was with them.
Sir John and Lady Franklin have invited me 4 or 5 times to Government house. I have been there twice they are extremely kind the much so in one instance lately where her Lady ship[sic] arranged that with Capt[ain]. Ross that I should go for a week all over the Island on horseback with her Aide de Camp Lieut[enant] Bagot*9 (son of the bishop of Oxford*10) going to Launceston & returning by Oyster bay to the Eastward with servants &c. As this did not suit my collecting propensities I called on her Lady ship[sic] & respectfully declined what might have else been a most pleasant trip. Kaye[sic] has gone & fine weather they have had! I have a nice poney[sic] from Lady F[ranklin]. on which I sometimes ride to my Botanizing stations along with a clever man from Mr Gunn's [.] Cryptogramica of course form the best part of my collections hitherto

Hookeria pennata in abundance about 1000 f[ee]t up on M[oun]t Wellington among the Tree ferns one, sp[ecimenwith 18 capsules! & many Lichens. On arriving I told Mr Gunn I determined to find a new Nat[ural]. Ord[er]. here the Andraea & accordingly the other day about 2400 f[ee]t about on M[oun]t W[ellingto]n I discovered lots of it on some trass rocks & very delighted I was having found two at K[er]g[uelen] Land, & gathered the Cape one & all the British sp[ecies]. I am collecting the few last years seedvessels of Leguminosae that are still extant for my kind friend Mr Bentham*11 by the bye he wrote me a letter that shall be answered directly I cannot tell you how much he delighted me by writing it was so very kind of him he has I see ctd[cited?] me at Erica McKayi in D[e]C[andolle]. p[ar]t.II v[olume]. VII*12 why, I know not. Tom Thomson[']s*13 letter was from Malta -- I sincerely hope that he will collect well & hardly doubt but that he will though at Aden he can have but very little time. Has anything been heard of Wallich*14, one of my messmates Smith knows his son at Hull as a terribly wild fellow. Since being here two old friends at least one have turned up -- one a Mr Gouldie uncle to Dr Balfour the other a clever chemist in Dr Thomson[']s laboratory Dr [John] Coverdale brother to young Eatwell. both live near Richmond the latter receiving chiefly through private practice about £500 per annum & driving his Carriage & pair, married & all. Valentine*15 the microscopist is here, living about 30 miles off I shall see him if possible & stimulate him to mosses, as to their Calyptra I can prove that it it[sic] is not necessarily formed of one convolute leaf especially in Orthotriceae. The conical termination of Setae downwards I also saw before seeing Val[entine]'s. paper in Linn[ean] T Gunn's Dawsonia is a splendid thing, I think a new sp[ecies]. 6 & 7 inches long I hope to find it at P[or]t Arthur & examine it microscopically especially regarding the peristome & Calyptra, when in the ice. You must have seen it by this time. I was quite wrong in calling T[etratheca]. glandulosa & Tetratheca pilosa vars they are very distinct though as yet I cannot allow any more sp[ecies]. of that section but T[etratheca]. ciliata Lindl[ey]. Gunn is annoyed at having received nothing from Gray*16 for his animals &c. he has lately cleared off Short's debt with £300. You sent out by me no Icones for him but some duplicates of the Journal Companion as also many numbers of the Bot[anical]. Mag[azine]. which you have not continued he has many fine things to send you & has still plenty of resources for continuing a capital correspondent. His collection I am now arranging & hope to send you a catalogue of his things in D[e]C[andolle's]*17. seventh vol[ume]. with dissections &c. of the knew Epacrid[aceae]. &c. if it will do for the Icones & save you any trouble in preparing matter for that chasening[sic] work. I am quite distressed about your having missed the mss [manuscript] as I think the plant called Tillaea verticillata[sic] is a new Bulliarda wh[ich]. I called Bruli B[ulliarda]. recurva, & the Mniarum fasciculatum I had thought new & called congestum.
In Gunn's copy there is a wrong description to a Caryophyll[aceae]. wh[ich]. if I remember rightly was N. Am[erican]. So the Calif[ornia]. plant is called Graza & the V[an]. D[iemen's] L[and]. Lawrencia -- Milligania is very proper. My books did not reach Johnstone before he sailed but he left word that they sh[oul]d. follow by the first convict ship. many thanks for them I hope however that in future you will not deprive your deserving correspondents by sending me the Icones. The new Bot[anical]. Journ[al]. promises well. every one was sick of the Annals[.] why did you give my stupid paper such an undeserved preference? I would take 20 copies if that w[oul]d. do any good. Lady Franklin has established a Nat[ural]. Hist[ory]. Society or rather Soirees that meet every fortnight on Monday evenings at Government House

*18,19 They have elected me an honorary member. Lilly, a very clever & nice fellow has read several papers on Geology. Of Orchideae I have found the Corysanthes fimbriata & three Pterostylides[sic] the labellum of the latter on being touched springs up with elastic force & covers the stigma instantaneously. Lady Franklin has bought a splendid piece of ground for a Bot[anical] garden about 4 miles from town 600 f[ee]t up M[oun]t Wellington in a grand valley, the spot is the slope of a hill commanding a glorious view cleared out & belted by immense Eucalypti & Acacia. A winding pathway of a few yards leads up to a perfect native forest scene where tall shafts of Eucalypti & wattles shoot high up above everything else, covering a dense brushwood with splendid tree ferns, Westringias, Zieria, Aster, Argoph[yllum]., Bedfordia, Corraea virens, Exocarpus, Pittosporum, &c, &c. forming an almost impenetrable jungle with their concomitant parasitic forms Hymenophylla Lichens & myriad of Hook[eria]. pennata
There is plenty of water & its distance from Town is its only disadvantage. The name of the lower part of the valley is Kangaroo bottom but a name is wanting for this part which leads up to M[oun]t. W[elllingto]n. which by the bye is seen from it, towering up, it strikes me it will be called Hooker's valley, as Garden V[alley]. is preengaged, a finer spot is inconceivable[.]
Capt[ain]. Ross is a great man here & by a little management he & I have got on better than I ever could have expected he has written to you about my health I believe at least he told me he had. I am most anxious to know whether you have received my plants, he fully believes you have. With regard to the live plants they have been unfortunate I had every Kerguelen's Land Phanerogam in a Ward's case & after a long consult with the Capt[ain]. we agreed to place them on deck to be taken below in bad weather, but the late gale came on so suddenly that to have removed the hatches was utterly impossible the consequence was that one of the seas that broke into us also broke into the case & drenched them all his own which he valued most included. They are now at Government Gardens & some including the Cabbage are recovering.
I have left no room for messages of love which must be understood by all including my dog. I cannot be too much obliged to Maria & all for their many kind letters I hope to respond to them in due time[.]
Believe me | your most affectionate son | Jos[eph] D Hooker[signature]