Document information

Physical location:

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Thomas Anderson, box 2, letters from various originators 1859-68, vol. 1, no. 160. 66.02.24

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Thomas Anderson, 1866-02-24. 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/1860-9/1866/66-02-24-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

24/2/66
Dear Dr Anderson
By this months mail steamer I beg to send you a parcel with Corypha seeds fresh collected. Our species (Corypha or
Livistona Australis

Search for Livistona Australis in

) will stand occasional frosts & is next
Areca sapida

Search for Areca sapida in

the most southern palm, having been discovered by me as far South as 37° 30' & yet there 80' high It would succeed in colder parts of India, where your palms will not grow. Perhaps you like also to send some seeds to Britain. The native trees of Corypha are now almost extinct.
1
The native … extinct is a marginal note.
I send you also seeds of my 2 new genera of
Proteaceae

Search for Proteaceae in

,
Cardwellia

Search for Cardwellia in

&
Darlingia

Search for Darlingia in

, noble trees of N. E. Australia, which ought to prosper in your clime, like wise some other tree seeds of Queensland. Pray let me thank you for the other noble invoice of
Deodar

Search for Deodar in

pineseeds I just receive. Some day you may be here to enjoy a sight of the multitude of noble pines you thus enable us successively to raise & of which we can never have too many . Shall I send you
Eucalyptus

Search for Eucalyptus in

seeds? In looking over D.C. Quercus
2
A. de Candolle (1864).
I long much to have as many of the noble Indian species as possible.
The illustrious Asa Gray has sent me acorns of many American oaks & I have most of the mediterranian, but among Indian oaks only
Quercus lanata

Search for Quercus lanata in

!! & of this only one young imported plant, brought from Europe! I certainly do not wish to be immodest, but it occurs to me, that perhaps acorns of many of your oaks are readily accessible to you or perhaps you would kindly point out, how they could be procured.
I owe you plants for the herbarium since a long time. In fact I have run into debt with A Gray, Regel, Miquel, Thwaites & other friends likewise. The acquisition of Dr Steetzs herbarium & now of Drummonds herbarium
3
See Short (1990).
has taken for arrangement that little time which I otherwise could have devoted in selecting spare plants from the general collection. Bentham pushes me also for material & so I have to finish the preliminary work on
Compositae

Search for Compositae in

first. But rest assured sooner or later my debts (all incurred for the department) will be redeemed. Your Indian plants have proved already highly valuable in comparison to North Australian plants. I send you the 36 No of my Fragmenta
4
B66.02.01.
by this mail. If any number is wanting pray let me know.
[…]
5
The preceding paragraph ends at the bottom of the fourth page of the second folio. The last sheet filed as part of the letter and transcribed here may not belong to it. There is an unknown amount of text missing.
of creation & absorbs all my time nearly & then Board meetings, Correspondence & literary work together with extraduties such as the intercolonial Exhibition Leichhardt search involves take away the rest.
In Mr Kurz you have evidently acquired a valuable museum assistant
Ever your
Ferd Mueller
Have you a plant of Buddleya Asiatica
6
Buddleja asiatica?
to spare? I find these Buddleyas, which strike so well from cuttings & grow so quickly my main stronghold for supplying shrubs to cemeteries, school & church reserves, but have not B. Asiatica