The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ You doubtless do not know that I was the first to have the idea of sending the great Todeas to Europe. Even Kew Gardens did not possess any until at the beginning of this year I sent a specimen 7 f...

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69.12.00d

Plant names

Todea
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Ferdinand von Mueller to Edouard André, 1869-12 [69.12.00d]. 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/1860-9/1869/69-12-00d-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

Letter not found. The text given here is from the article, signed 'Ed. André’, that accompanies an illustration of a potted africana exhibited by A. Verschaffelt at the International Horticultural Congress held in St Petersburg in 1869, published in L'illustration horticole, vol. 17, 1870, pp. 199-200. The correspondent is inferred from the introduction to the quoted letter from M:

Toutefois, ce n'est pas à I'initiative de nos collegues européens qu'il faut reporter I'honneur d'avoir expédié le premier à I'etat vivant. Je trouve, dans une lettre du docteur Mueller, directeur du Jardin botanique de Melbourne, une note datée de la fin de 1869 et qui revendique la priorité d'envoi de cette plante dans nos contrées. Ce passage est assez intéressant pour être traduit ici:

[However, it is not to the initiative of our European colleagues that the honour of sending the first live should be ascribed. In a letter from Dr. Mueller, director of the Melbourne botanic garden, I find a note dated from the end of 1869 that claims the priority of sending this plant to our countries. This passage is interesting enough to be translated here:]

The item is dated to December 1869 on the basis of this comment.

Vous ignorez sans doute que j'eus le premier I'idée d'expédier les grands Todéas en Europe. Le Jardin de Kew même n'en possédait aucun jusqu'à ce que j'y eusse envoyé, au commencement de cette année, un exemplaire de 7 pieds de haut sur 5 de large.

In an interpolated comment in B67.13.06, the editors of L'illustration horticole had expressed disbelief about the dimensions of : '… les colossales , à caudex de six à dix pieds de hauteur et quelquefois d'autant en diametre (sic! diametre frondal, sans doute! Réd.), surgissent des cours d'eau qui serpentent dans les profondes ravines non loin du mont Lofty…' [… the colossal , about six to ten feet high to the caudex, and sometimes as much in diameter (sic, frondal diameter, undoubtedly! Ed.), arise from streams that wind through the deep ravines near Mount Lofty ...].

Même avant la colonisation de I'Afrique méridionale, c'est-â-dire il y a plus de 300 ans, on aurait pu importer par mer des Todéas en Europe, et d'Australie depuis la fin du siècle dernier.

Cependant personne n'y songea jusqu'à ce que j'eusse entrepris cette tâche. A. Verschaffelt, de Gand, suivit cet exemple et il étonna les horticulteurs du monde entier åa St Pétersbourg en exhibant cette noble plante.

You doubtless do not know that I was the first to have the idea of sending the great s to Europe. Even Kew Gardens did not possess any until at the beginning of this year I sent a specimen 7 feet high by 5 wide.

See M to J. Hooker, 19 May 1869 (in this edition as 69-05-19a) and J. Hooker to M, 10 September 1869.

Even before the colonization of South Africa, that is to say, more than 300 years ago, s could have been imported by sea into Europe, and from Australia since the end of the last century.

Yet no one thought of it until I undertook this task. A. Verschaffelt of Ghent followed this example and astonished the horticulturists of the whole world in St Petersburg by exhibiting this noble plant.

The International Horticultural Congress was held in St Petersburg in May 1869. M makes similar claims about priority of export in M to J. Hooker, 11 August 1869 (in this edition as 68-08-11b), and M to F. Krauss, 14 August 1869 (in this edition as 69-08-14d).