Document information

Physical location:

Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, Thomas Anderson, box 2, letters from various originators 1859-68, vol. 1, no. 161. 66.03.24d

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to [Thomas Anderson], 1866-03-24 [66.03.24d]. 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/1860-9/1866/66-03-24d-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
Correspondent inferred from location and content of letter. Though there is no signature, the letter is in M’s hand.
24/3/66
Dear Collegue.
I received not the Deodar seeds you so generously again secured, they undoubtedly having been left behind at Galle,
2
Sri Lanka.
where much of the Steamers good was left for despatch next month I have sent you by this mail seeds of the following highly useful trees.
Eucalyptus fissilis

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Ferd. Mueller
3
No description of E. fissilis has been found. The name was used by Anonymous (1862), p. 19, for 'Messmate', as it was in the report of the Jurors on the timber exhibited at the Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne 1866-67 (Intercolonial exhibition of Australasia (1867), p. 216), but without attribution to an author. M noted that 'it is yet an unsettled point whether the E. f issilis should be separated as a species or as a variety from E. obliqua; the wood and bark of both are very distinct to the woodsplitters, builders, and commercial dealers' (M to Gardeners' chronicle , May 1875 (B75.06.01). Guilfoyle (1877), p. 25, attributes the name to M. The name was used in California, for example in a description of Ellwood Cooper's estate at Santa Barbara ( Morning press  (Santa Barbara), 30 June 1877, p. 2) and in a catalogue of trees and shrubs in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Board of Park Commissioners of San Francisco (1895), p. 37). Luehmann (1898), p. 6 notes under Eucalytptus obliqua '(sometimes cultivated under the name E. Fissilis)'.
Eucalyptus obliqua

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l'Heritier
Eucalyptus amygdalina

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Labillardière
Acacia Melanoxylon

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R Brown
I find in many cases the Deodar seeds do not germinate. Whether it is imperfection of albumen or chemical alteration of the seed by age that destroys the viability, I cannot say, But these kinds of seeds are more shy in germinating than even any others of
Coniferae

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here unless
Araucaria Cunninghami

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& A. excelsa. — All the plants raised by us as
Pinus longifolia

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have turned out
Pinus excelsa

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. You will see in my garden plan,
4
B65.10.01 included a garden plan.
that I am still wanting entirely of many of your Himalaian pines & all your Oaks except Q. lanata. Acorns if fresh collected rendered well dry & put into small canvas bags would travel quite well.
5
Text ends near bottom of the sheet without a valediction; letter may be incomplete.