Document information

Physical location:

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Thomas Anderson, box 2, letters from various originators 1859-68, vol. 1, no 156 64.11.22

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Thomas Anderson, 1864-11-22. 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/1860-9/1864/64-11-22-final.odt>, accessed June 5, 2026

Melbourne bot Garden
22/11/64
Dear Professor
Yesterday arrived the case with the large collection of Indian plants you so kindly transmitted pr Marguerite, and which will be a real boon to me, called upon as I am so frequently to compare the plants of Northern Australia with India. I will strive to send you a good return of Australian plants, more particularly of the northern regions, as these will be of more immediate use to you for comparison. My collector
1
John Dallachy.
is in an interesting district, in the jungle mountains of Rockingham Bay, but his supplies are not abundant, as the place is so dreadfully besieged by numerous hordes of the most savage natives, so that no one can go any distance without being armed to the teeth, a circumstance that materially interferes in getting together plants in some quantity.
I have sent by this months mail a case with 18
Araucaria Cookii

Search for Araucaria Cookii in

to you, strange plants, two years in my nursery now since imported as seedlings from New Caledonia. I regard its soft foliage more beautiful even than that of
Araucaria excelsa

Search for Araucaria excelsa in

.
I was very sorry to hear of the sad devastation the shoking cyclone has caused in your paradisic garden,
2
The Argus of 11 November 1864, p. 6 carried a report of the 'terrific cyclone' that passed over Calcutta on 5 October 1864. It noted that 'The botanical gardens were totally destroyed’.
and can feel for you the more as I have suffered myself by 3 successive innundations of the lower parts of my garden during the last year, involving losses to the extent of several thousand pounds to my department.
By this mail I send you also two little books for your friendly acceptance. That of the Chatham Vegetation may ensure your interest more particularly as in it I have briefly but decidedly opposed the reckless transmutation theory.
3
B64.10.02; see Lucas (2010). There is no valediction; the letter may be incomplete.