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73.07.00b

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Ferdinand von Mueller to the Riverine herald, 1873-07 [73.07.00b]. 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/1870-9/1873/73-07-00b-final.odt>, accessed June 15, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The plants of Riverina', Pastoral times (Deniliquin, NSW), 5 July 1873, p. 3 (B73.07.10); it was reprinted in Sydney mail, 19 July 1873, p. 72 (B73.07.05). It is introduced by 'Baron Von Mueller thus writes to the Riverine Herald:—'. The original in the Riverine herald has not been found.
Allow me to ask you, dear sir, whether you would draw kindly in your columns attention to the fact that the geographic range of the plants of Riverina
2
A name commonly applied to the region of southern NSW, west of the Great Dividing Range, that is drained by the Murray and Murrumbidgee Rivers as far west as their confluence.
is very imperfectly as yet understood, and that it would be a contribution to knowledge if intelligent settlers in various parts of that province would collect piles and dry the plants growing wild in their vicinity and send such successively by parcel post to me, as from such material the various natural distributions of the different species could be ascertained. In my volumes I always record the names of the finders with any rare plant sent to me. Fruit bearing perennials are as valuable for my researches as such as are merely in flower. I am particularly prompted to address you at this moment, because minute annual plants, which the rains of the cool season call forth ephemerally are now gradually again making their appearance, and these are as yet least of all studied, though so easily gathered and prepared, because they are easily overlooked, and as a rule, not showy, and thus left quietly unregarded by amateur collectors. Although I commenced examining the vegetation of the Murray regions as far back as 1848 by personal travels, I was never able to traverse any of these regions from July until September myself, and thus the aid now desired simply for scientific purposes and for the continuation of my works, is asked through your friendly consideration.