The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ Thus the fields in the vicinity of my present dwelling, a newly broken soil — peaty heath — with wonderful humus, form for us rye heads with 3- even 4-flowered heads, so that a full head contains 7...

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Physical location:

Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 74.00.00

Plant names

Anthoxanthum odoratum
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Anthoxanthum puelii
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Secale
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Triticum
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Preferred Citation:

Wilhelm Sonder to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1874. 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/74-00-00>, accessed September 11, 2025

MS is a fragment of a sing le sheet, found in a copy of Steudel (1855). The allusion to Eduard Graeffe in the letter suggest that this was written after 1873, when Graeffe returned to Germany from Samoa, but before he attained his permanent position in Trieste in 1875 (see n. 6). The letter is therefore dated to 1874 as the latest likely date it would have been written.

So bilden die Felder in der Nähe meiner jetzigen Wohnung, ein neuangebrochenen Boden — Torfheide — mit wundervollenem Humus, die Roggenähren mit 3- sogar 4-blüthigen Aehrchen uns, so dass eine volle Aehre 70-80 schöne Körnen enthält. Dabei bleibt das Rudiment selbst in der 4tn Blüthe noch unverändert, von einem Uebergange in die Gattung kann gar keine Rede sein (Kunth u a haben die Vereinigung von mit preparirt) Auch halte ich diesen Stiel der linienförmig blattartig ist, gar nicht für einen Ansatz zu einer neuen Blüthe.

Ausserdem zeigte sich auf Wiesen häufig mit dem das französische A. Puelii, das sich durch dichten Rasenwuchs auszeichnet aber durch die einjährige Wurzel u den niedrigeren Halm zurücksteht.

Im gegenwärtigen Sommer werde ich einige andere Feldpflanzen beobachten, denn ich sehe immer mehr, dass das gewöhnliche bei uns am wenigsten genau gekannt ist.

Wir erhalten endlich für Hamburg ein Gewerbemuseum, es wird ein schönes Gebäute errichtet, ich denke dass es im Laufe dieses Jahres fertig werden wird. Hamburg ist sehr günstig gelegen. Ich hoffe wir werden Berlin […]

Bottom of sheet cut off; the text that follows is on the verso.

[...]mutter u hat dieser wahrscheinlich den zweiten Brief der letzteren zur Folge gehabt. Wir wollen nun sehen wie es wird. Ist der Sohn noch in Australian?

Dieser Morgen erhielt ich mit der Post der Hefte der Royal Society of Tasmania (1872), u danke freundlichst für Ihren Vermittelung. Gleichzeitig kam auch ein leinener Beutel an mit der Aufschrift: Seaweed & Sponges fr Westaustralia. Beim Offnen finde ich aber nur Spongien darin, keine Algen. Dies nur zur Notiz. Ihr nächster Brief, der vor Ende des Monats nicht eintreffen wird, wird wohl belehren, für wen die Spongien bestimmt sind, vielleicht für Dr Krauss, für den ich in Ihren letzten Briefe 2 Photographien neucaledonischen Insekten erhielt, die nächstens befördert werden sollen.

Der arme Dr Graeffe wandert noch umher und kann keine Anstellung finden, gegenwärtig ist er in Triest. Die Frau Dietrich soll nun in diesem Sommer […] nach neuester Bestimmung von Godefroy nach Neu Irland abgehen, um namentlich ethnographische Sammlungen zusammenzubringen. Geht sie hin, so bleibt das in Bezug auf die Pflanzen so wie ich Ihnen im vorigen Briefe geschrieben habe.

[…]

The letter evidently continued in a new paragraph on the part of the sheet that has been cut off, the tops of some letters in the next few words being still present.

Thus the fields in the vicinity of my present dwelling, a newly broken soil — peaty heath — with wonderful humus, form for us rye heads with 3- even 4-flowered heads, so that a full head contains 70-80 beautiful grains. In so doing the vestige itself still remains unaltered in the 4th flower. There can be no question of a crossover in the genus (Kunth and others have prepared the combination of with ).

No reference to Kunth's combination of and has been found. If the sense is a taxonomic combination of the genera, Kunth (1833-50), vol. 1, distinguished between (pp. 438 ff) and (p. 449); if in the sense of hybridization, Focke (1881) records only one reported attempt to hybridize the genera, commencing in 1873 and reported in A. Wilson (1876). Neither Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 3, part 2, pp. 1203-4, nor Steudel (1855), vol. 1, pp. 341-7 mention Kunth's having united these genera.

I also I regard this stem, which is lineal leaf-like, by no means as an apophysis to a new flower.

In addition the French appeared in fields frequently with A. odoratum, which is characterized by thick grass growth, but takes second place through the annual root and the low blade.

In the current summer I shall observe some other field plants, as I see more and more that the commonplace among us is the least known.

Finally we are getting an industrial museum for Hamburg.

Founded 1874, but present building built 1873-75.

A beautiful building will be erected. I think that it will be finished in the course of this year. Hamburg is very favourably located. I hope we will […] Berlin […]

See n. 2 above.

[…]and this has probably resulted in the the second letter of the latter. We will now see how it goes. Is the son still in Australia?

This morning with the post I received the part of the Royal Society of Tasmania (1872) and thank you most graciously for your intervention.

Sonder had been elected a corresponding member of the Royal Society of Tasmania at its meeting of 14 April 1868 (Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1868, p. 4). There is no indication in the Society's Papers and proceedings for 1871 (published 1872) nor in the issues for the following three years that M was involved in a specific item related to Sonder; it is likely that Sonder had not received the 1872 issue of the journal and that M had intervened to ensure that he received it.

At the same time a canvas bag also arrived with the label: Seaweed & Sponges fr Westaustralia. On opening, however, I found only sponges in it, no algae. This only to note. Your next letter, which will not arrive before the end of the month, will probably say for whom the sponges are destined, perhaps Dr Krauss, for whom I received 2 photographs of New Caledonian insects in your last letter that will be forwarded in the near future.

Poor Dr Graeffe is still wandering around and cannot find a position. At present he is in Trieste.

Eduard Graeffe had returned from Samoa in 1873, and was appointed an inspector at the Zoological Station in Trieste in 1875.

According to the latest stipulation of Godefroy, Mrs Dietrich is now to go off this summer to New Ireland

At the time part of German New Guinea, now part of Papua New Guinea.

to assemble especially ethnographic collections.

Although the ADB entry for Amalie Dietrich asserts that 'on 4 March 1873, accompanied by two pet eagles, she returned to Hamburg', the major source for that article, a biography by her daughter, has been shown (Sumner (1988)) to be unreliable in detail. However, in this case an article in Hamburger Nachtrichten, 15 March 1873, p. 4 reports that two eagles brought by her were exhibited at the Hamburg Zoological Garden, supporting that assertion. Sonder saw Dietrich regularly after her return to Hamburg; in W. Sonder to F. von Krauss 11 June 1873 (in this edition as M73-06-11), he spoke of hearing her discuss problems of collecting, and in W. Sonder to F. von Krauss, 8 March 1875 (in this edition as M75-03-08), he reported that she was expecting to go to Australia again to collect Queensland lung-fish. In the event, she never returned to Australia or the Pacific.

If she goes there, then in reference to the plants what I have written to you in the previous letter remains so.

[…]

See n. 3 above.