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Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, J. H. Balfour correspondence, volume X, f. 276. 69.03.28b

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to John Balfour, 1869-03-28 [69.03.28b]. 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/1860-9/1869/69-03-28b-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

Melbourne bot. Garden,
Easterday
1
28 March.
1869.
I was asked by this months mail, dear Prof Balfour, to send seeds of
Wittsteinia

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to my excellent friend, Prof Dr. Wittstein in Munich. I have never succeeded in raising this plant from seeds, and what is in cultivation I brought from the Alps of Australia in a living state.
In the Calico roofed case,of which Dr. Madden took so kindly charge and to which Dr McNab referred in such friendly terms, one plant of
Wittsteinia

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reached Edinburgh at that time safely.
2
See M to J. Balfour, 21 September 1866, and Transactions of the Botanical Society. of Edinburgh, vol. 8 (1866), pp. 482-4. Proceedings of 14 June 1866.
It is likely, that the plant has done well in your conservatory, and since it is, like all other Vaccini[c]ae
3
Vacciniaceae?
easily multiplied from cuttings, I fancy you might have a plant to spare, which some tourist some day might take to the Munich garden; where this particular species would have a more than usual interest. Will you oblige me, if you can?
Physostigma venenosum

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I have now raised from seed. The only seed I had was burried in earth for four years & exposed to various temperatures, until at last it suddenly germinated in a cold frame,
With much sincere regards
Ferd.von Mueller