The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: [Mr Geoffroy then communicated to the Assembly several letters: ¶ … ¶ 3) From Mr de Chateauvieux, from Saint-Leu (Reunion Island), reporting on his experiments on the cultivation of ¶ Eucalyptus ¶ :...

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Physical location:

63.00.00a

Plant names

Acacia
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Araucaria
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- Australian Plant Name Index
Dammara
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Eucalyptus
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Sosthènes d'Armand de Châteauvieux, 1863 [63.00.00a]. 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//letters/1860-9/1863/63-00-00a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

M's letter not found. The text given here is from a long letter from Châteauvieux read to the Société d'acclimatation in Paris at its meeting of 6 April 1877 (Bulletin de la Société d'acclimatation, ser. 3, vol. 4, pp. 254-6); the extract is from p. 254.

[M. Geoffroy communique ensuite à l'Assemblée plusieurs lettres

…

3° De M. de Châteauvieux, de Saint-Leu (île de la Réunion), rendant compte de ses essais de culture d' : "En 1863, écrit M. de Châteauvieux, élu par le suffrage de mes collègues à la présidence de la Chambre d'agriculture de la colonie, préoccupé de la nécessité du reboisement de notre île, je me suis adressé à M. le docteur Von Mueller, de Melbourne,

Letter not found.

pour réclamer de son obligeance bien connue des renseignements et même des graines des espèces forestières qui pouvaient le mieux nous convenir.

M. Mueller me signala en première ligne les diverses variétés d' , puis les Araucaria , les et les diverses espèces d' s.

Je me procurai des graines et des plants de tous ces arbres, et je les cultivai avec soin".]

[Mr Geoffroy then communicated to the Assembly several letters:

…

3) From Mr de Chateauvieux, from Saint-Leu (Reunion Island), reporting on his experiments on the cultivation of : "In 1863, writes M. de Chateauvieux, elected by the vote of my colleagues to the presidency of the Chamber of Agriculture of the colony, preoccupied with the necessity of reafforestation of our island, I applied to Dr. Von Mueller of Melbourne to claim from his well-known kindness information and even seeds of the forestry species that could best suit us.

Mr Mueller pointed out to me first the various varieties of , then the Araucaria , the , and the various species of s.

I procured seeds and seedlings of all these trees and cultivated them with care".

…]

Châteauvieux's letter continues with details of the progress of the cultivation of , the properties of the timber and the comparative success of different species, including the comments that 'Pour notre colonie, je regarde l'introduction et la culture de ces arbres comme très-utiles…. Les fièvres paludéennes qui désolent notre île n'ont pu franchir le rideau d' qui entoure ma propriété; pas une seule personne de ma famille ou de mes travailleurs n'a été atteint de la fièvre.' [For our colony, I regard the introduction and cultivation of these trees as very use ful….The malarious fevers that desolate our island have not been able to cross the curtain of that surrounds my property; not a single person from my family or my workers has been affected with fever.']

M apparently did not supply the bulk of the seeds planted; Châteauvieux bought them from Sydney.