Ferdinand von Mueller

Dobroyde

1

Dobroyde Nursery, Ramsay’s property near Sydney.

Aug 16—1874

To The Baron Ferd. Von Mueller

Melbourne

My dear Dr Mueller

Very many thanks for your kind letter & telegram

2

Telegram not found.

& for the honor you have done us in giving so [beautely]

3

beautiful?

a Palm the name of Ramsay

4

See M to E. Ramsay, 4 July 1874. M named Livistona ramsayi in B74.08.01, p. 221.

I shall always feel grateful & I trust I may be useful, also to you; & your works, I wrote some weeks ago to Inspector Johnstone & others on the Herbert River

5

Qld.

to collect & send fruits flowering spikes & a frond of each & all the Palms in that neighbourhood, so we shall doubtless get something from some of them. I asked Johnstone also to send you the Collect. of Plants made during the N. E. coast Expedition. They were much damaged with water but some of them might be usefull My cousin Mr John Nesbitt is now making you a collection at Rockingham Bay

6

Qld.

— all the few specimens I dried were destroyed during the wet season & thrown out I have only two or three wh. I will send you there is nothing of any importance among them, the ferns & Palms are the only things I cared for & I brought seeds & plants of these

Mr Hill

7

Walter Hill. See also M to E. Ramsay, 5 July 1874, and E. Ramsay to M, 16 July 1874.

to say the least, is very shortsighted. he cannot do without your support & references any more than Mr Moore & others & yet he is too jealous to let you see his so called new plants — & then expects the next time he is in a fix for the genus of some plant he has not met with before, that you should give him every help However I have no doubt I shall be able to manage him, when I go north. It is only a matter of time & my brother's & my own recent illness & business matters here have delayed my Expedition, but we have selected some 3,000 acres of Sugar land on the Johnstone

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Johnstone River, Qld.

and will soon have to go North to commence operations on a larger scale. My brothers are all enthusiasts and collect for me. I know it will be a pleasure for them as a duty to assist you in every way in their power.

I do not think Hill brought any fronds or flowers of the Cocos , & only a few fruits He has from these fruits small seedling plants — I will try him by letter & see if I can get some fruits for you. It certainly is a Cocos of some kind the seeds I saw were same as those of C. plumosa in appearance a little larger . Hill also brought with him some malformed fruits of C. nucifera , wh. were thought at first to belong to a new sp: these fruits were only the production half grown, of young trees the nut inside was of a oblong semilunar shape the husky covering oblong & small.

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Drawing inserted in the text:

This species C. nucifera is growing luxuriantly on the Frankland Isles about 2 day's sail N. of Cardwell

10

Qld.

inside the Great Barrier reef

There are two distinct species of

Cycas

Search for Cycas in

• This website
• Australian Plant Name Index

at Cardwell , and

[...]

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