Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from ‘Garden Catalogues’ in Home Correspondence, Gardeners' Chronicle and Agricultural Gazette, 27 April 1867, p. 435 (B67.04.01). It is dated to March 1867 as the latest likely date that it could have been written to appear in this issue.

A standard catalogue, which might serve all countries and all establishments, is much needed. If from it all unnecessary synonymy were banished, such a garden catalogue might become available as a comparatively inexpensive and certainly convenient medium of circulation for effecting exchanges. Such publication would be remunerative to the author and publisher, and save an immensity of work to garden establishments everywhere: it would afford also much facility to those who do not possess extensive libraries to provide correct nomenclature for their plants. Such index might perhaps, with most advantage, be divided into independent chapters, for instance, for Ferns, for Orchids, for hardy trees and shrubs, for miscellaneous tropical plants, for annual and herbaceous perennials, &c.