Ferdinand von Mueller

1

MS envelope front: 'Dr F Müller | Care of Messrs Büttner & Heüzenroeder | Chemists & Druggists | Rundle Street | Adelaide | South Australia'. Front post-marked Launceston, 8 September 1849, and GPO South Australia, 15 October 1849.

For a published precis of this letter see Daley (1935), p. 133.

Woodhall nr Perth

2

Tas.

Septr 6th 1849.

Dear Sir,

I have been anxiously waiting for a letter from you in acknowledgement of two packages of specimens which I sent you & therefore fear that from the long time which has passed that you could not have received them, in order to make sure that they had left here safe (as I was not in Launceston at the time the vessells sailed) I went some time since to ascertain particulars respecting them & find that the first box left Launceston in the "Shamrock" & arrived at Port Adelaide on the 16th Aprill & was left at Messrs Bennetts there who are agents for most of the vessils from hence, — the second Box left in the Tamar on the 2nd of May but I cannot learn the date of her arrival in your Colony — if therefore you have not received them I should advise your application to Messrs Bennetts without delay as they may become damaged — I should indeed feel much disappointment should any accident happen so that after all my trouble, there were in the two boxes about 600 Gen. & sp. together with some musci &c in addition — in fact all my summers collecting — do write me word on receipt of this respecting them

I have to acknowledge the reciept of a letter from you dated April 15th/49,

3

Letter not found.

but at which time you of course could not know about them as the first lot arrived at P. Adelaide on the day after — I did not answer this letter as I felt sure that you had received my letters which I wrote with the same vessels the boxes went by — respecting Mr Giles I beg you will not give yourself any trouble respecting him in the settling of my account as it is evident that he wishes to impose on me

4

For some background to the financial dispute with Giles, who has not been identified, see C. Stuart to M, 8 June 1849, and other letters cited in n. 6 therein.

, I would not give him a shilling more his object is to get my books which he thinks I will make a sacrifice for by paying him his unjust demand but let him keep them I am sorry to lose them but I will not be imposed upon by him, but his character is well known at Adelaide — he has treated me infamously, but I do not want any more to do with him, he had the empudence to write to me for about 20£ worth of Trees and plants a short time ago, without saying a word about my box which was an extent of impudence I was not prepared for even in him, I wrote to him & told him so — so that we will say no more about him, you say in your last letter that you intended to procure the herbarium at Mr Stephens I should be very glad of it,

5

Letter not found. For previous correspondence related to the collection held by Stephens, who has not been identified, see C. Stuart to M, 8 June 1849, and letters cited in n. 8 therein.

to see if I could get some of the seeds to grow & if after paying any expense you would forward it & the balance of the cash in your hands should be much obliged, unless indeed the specimens which I sent have not come to hand, in which case pray keep it as part payment of your favor to me when I left Adelaide which kindness believe me I do not forget altho our correspondence has been unfortunate & may give you reason to think that I have not acted honorable, but trust me I have used my best endeavours to be as good as my word & will continue to do so, I have got a lot of Musci Lichenes Fungi &c ready for you but really do not like to send them together with some seeds from S. Africa &c untill I hear from you — it is also my intention in the next month to take a journey to the Eastern part of V D Land where there are many plants not well known — I have to make much extra work in order to get time to go out as I have so much to attend to in my situation, there is a gentleman here ( whose address is W. Archer Esqr, Cheshunt near Deloraine ) V D Land — with whom you would be much pleased to correspond who has commenced the pursuit of Botany to who I made use of your name & gave him your address, & who said he should much like to correspond with you, which I think would be a mutual benifit, as he has the means to carry out his views he lives about 50 miles from me & has I expect written to you — I am sorry to hear by your last that your expedition to Rivoli bay was not very successful

6

The trip was evidently at the instigation of Samuel Davenport, who had an extensive sheep run in the area. In the winter and spring of 1846 his flock suffered catastrophic losses, attributed to the sheep eating a poisonous plant of some kind. Davenport asked M to investigate. (It was not until the mid 1930s that 'coast disease' was discovered to be caused by a deficiency of the trace elements cobalt and copper (Marston et al. (1938)).

I must beg you not to suppose that I am in any hurry for the names of plants in my collection take your own time & I shall feel gratified by the receipt of them when you are at leisure, — you may remember a plant which I found on the Murray Rivers growing sometimes in the water, which I then thought was an Aenothera, I have been since thinking it may be a Jussiaea, what think you? — I had commenced a new series of numbers with the last two lots of specimens sent in order to avoid confusion with those lost by the Henry & which I have for the most part now replaced in what I have by me in Cryptogamia I mentioned in my last a request of you to send me if you could procure it a few seeds of the Donia formosa 2 or 3 in a letter would come safely we had a plant here but lost it — I have lately received some seeds from Swan River W. Australia but without names I have sown them and many are coming up — they are mostly in the order & — hoping to hear from you on the first opportunity for which I wait with anxiety