The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Melbourne, ¶ 1 April 1874. ¶ ¶ Today, dear friend, I received your kind letter of the 17th; ¶ it did take a long time. I should think that several more Lemnaceae could be found in your Islands. ¶ ¶...

Document information

Physical location:

MS papers 37, no. 591, folder 209, Haast family papers, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington. 74.04.01

Plant names

Dendrobium
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Lemnaceae
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- Australian Plant Name Index
Wolffia hegelmeieri
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- Australian Plant Name Index

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Julius Haast, 1874-04-01. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/74-04-01>, accessed September 11, 2025

Melbourne,

1/4/74.

Heute, theuerer Freund, erhielt ich Ihr freundliches Schreiben vom 17.; es war also lange unterwegs. Ich sollte denken, dass sich noch mehrere Lemnaceen in Ihren Inseln finden lassen.

Entbieten Sie Herrn Dr Berggren meinen besten Gruss u sagen Sie ihm gütig, dass ich ihm sehr gern irgend etwas von hier senden würde, das in meinem Bereich liegen möchte für seine Zwecke. Unter den Algen und Pilzen wird er gewiss noch manches Merkwürdige finden, so auch unter den Moosen. Die Flechten hat wohl Launder Lindsay ziemlich weggesucht. Ihre Inseln sind in Cryptogamen reicher wie der ganze grosse Austral-Continent.

Fehlt Ihnen noch etwas von meinen Fragmentis, so sagen Sie es nur, u. ich will versuchen die Lücken in der Reihe dort auszufüllen. Die 65. Nummer wird diese Woche erscheinen

Die Wolffia habe ich W. Hegelmeieri genannt u Sie soll demnächst diagnosticirt werden. Sie haben wohl die Platten meiner Fossilien vollständig.

Nächstes Jahr habe ich selbst an Cryptogamen zu arbeiten, da dann der 7te Band des Werkes von Bentham u mir den Rest der Phanerogamen gebracht haben wird. Ich beglückwünsche Sie zur wohlverdienten Wahl in die R. S. of Tasm.

Dendrobia lassen sich kaum aus Samen ziehen; aber die Versendung von den knollenartigen Stämmen (pseudobulbi) ist leicht.

Seit mich der Vetter der Frau des Ministers, der ein ganz unwissenschaftlicher junger Gärtner ist (u dem der verstorbene Dr Seemann in der Vorrede zu der Flora Vitiensis des Plagiarismus beschuldigte) aus Garten u Haus gedrängt hat, kann ich natürlich keine lebenden Pflanzen mehr liefern.

Ihr Sie Ehrender

Ferd von Mueller

Mir sind auch fast alle Voten genommen, die zu dem jungen Gärtner über gingen, so auch die Gebäude, selbst das Laboratorium u das Bureau!

Melbourne,

1 April 1874.

Today, dear friend, I received your kind letter of the 17th;

Letter not found.

it did take a long time. I should think that several more could be found in your Islands.

See also M to J. Haast, 25 February 1874.

Convey my best regards to Dr Berggren and kindly tell him that I would very much like to send him something from here for his purposes, as far as lies within my reach. I am sure he will find still much that is unusual among the algae and fungi, likewise among the mosses. The lichens have probably been fairly well collected by Launder Lindsay.

i.e. Lauder Lindsay.

Your Islands are much richer in cryptogams than the whole Australian continent.

Do you still lack anything of my Fragmenta? If so, just tell me, and I shall try and fill the gaps in the series. The 65th number is coming out this week.

B74.03.01.

I have called the Wolffia W. hegelmeieri, it is to be diagnosed shortly.

M reported finding a Wolffia near Mt Emu Creek (Vic) in M to J. Haast, 25 February 1874, and sending it to Hegelmaier 'for identification or description' (see M to G. Bentham, 21 March 1874). Wolffia arrhiza var. australiana was described in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7, p. 162 from Mt Emu material.

I assume you probably have my fossil plates complete.

B70.14.01, B71.05.02, B71.08.01, B71.11.01 and B73.11.01 had been published by the date of the letter.

Next year I have to work on cryptogams myself, as by then the 7th volume of the work by Bentham and me

Bentham (1863-78). M urged Bentham to include cryptogams in Flora Australiensis (see, for example, M to G. Bentham, 27 February 1869), but Bentham firmly ruled this out; see G. Bentham to M, 13 May 1869. M eventually compiled a systematic index of Australian cryptogams, but the large MS now in the Library at MEL was never published.

will have concluded the phanerogams. I congratulate you on the well-earned election into the Royal Society of Tasmania.

Haast was elected a Corresponding Member of the Royal Society of Tasmania on 11 November 1873; see Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1873 (1874), p. 55.

can hardly be raised from seed; but the transmission of the tuber-like stems (pseudobulbs) is easy.

Since the cousin of the Minister's wife, a completely unscientific young gardener,

William Guilfoyle, whom M frequently asserted was related in this way to James Casey, the Minister responsible for the Botanic Garden.

(whom the late Dr Seemann in his introduction to his Flora Vitiensis accused of plagiarism)

Seemann (1863-75), vol. 1, p. x. Seemann reported that Guilfoyle had 'published a sketch of his trip' and in a footnote identified this as Guilfoyle's 1869 paper in the Journal of botany, i.e. Guilfoyle (1869), before adding in parentheses, 'Much of this sketch is taken verbatim, and without acknowledgment, from the various publications that issued from my pen'.

has forced me from gardens and home, I can of course no longer provide living plants.

Respectfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.

I have had nearly all the votes taken from me as well, and they have been transferred to the young gardener, so also the buildings, even the laboratory and the office!