Document information

Physical location:

ML MSS.562, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 87.03.30b

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Edward Ramsay, 1887-03-30 [87.03.30b]. 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/87-03-30b>, accessed September 11, 2025

30/3/87
It is delightful to contemplate, dear Dr Ramsay, that through your and your kind brothers and nephews action,
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James Ramsay and his son Edward Lord Ramsay.
we shall become acquainted with the plants of the remotest N.W. of N.SW. Let him particularly attend to the minutest annuals in spring also and to all sorts of Saltbushes. I should like much to know the northern boundary of the Quandong. I can send you a root of that marvellous perennial grass Vide "Select plants"
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Vide "Select plants" is a marginal note with its position marked by an asterisk. The current edition was B85.12.03.
Panicum spectabile for your brother now at the cool season.
What do you intend to do with regard to Forbes? I have just a telegram from him, quite unexpectedly, that he is coming south.
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Telegram not found. Henry Forbes had held government posts in British New Guinea after lack of funds curtailed his exploration. The Special Commissioner for British New Guinea, John Douglas, indicated in his annual report that Forbes was contemplating further exploration (Argus, 14 March 1887, p. 5). Forbes arrived in Melbourne, via Brisbane and Sydney, and attended a meeting of the Council of the Victorian Branch of the Royal Geographical Association of Australasia (RGSA) on 25 April 1887 (Argus, 26 April 1887, p. 7), seeking to arrange support for further exploration (Argus, 11 April 1887, p. 5, reporting from Brisbane). He felt he had been badly treated, and claimed he had not received the £500 granted by the RGSA in 1886, but this was refuted in a letter from the Secretary of the Victorian Branch (Australasian (Melbourne), 16 April 1887, p. 5, and Australasian, 23 April 1887, p. 791).
He has not communicated with me for a year or more.
Mt Seaview is the one put down of the map as 6000' high on the Hastings River.
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Both NSW; see M to E. Ramsay, 24 March 1887.
This measurement is surely overrated. It stands in round numbers thus on the map for 30 years! Still it is very high and isolated , but now very accessible thus it is sure to have new plants in the higher regions and of course also some peculiar fishes in the rivulets, land insects &c
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller
Panicum spectabile