Document information
Physical location:
Letter press copy book, Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts, Hobart. 74.10.18Preferred Citation:
Morton Allport to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1874-10-18. 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/1870-9/1874/74-10-18-final.odt>, accessed June 16, 2026
Hobart Town
18th Octr 1874
Baron Von Mueller
F.R.S.
Melbourne
Dear Sir,
As the best reply to your note I have packed up & forwarded per "Southern Cross" all
the fossil plants from my own collection which may or may not prove interesting but
which are quite at your service for as long a period as you wish —
Those from Gellston Bay (Tertiary [...]) are for the [most] part probably identical
with existing species but [the] three or four [specimens] of seeds or seed[vessels]
I cannot make out. These [...] are all associated with species of [...] [...] I believe
to be now extinct. [Consociated] fragments of bone belonging to existing Dasyurus
[...] were also [encountered] in one part of the Quarry —
1
See report of an address by Allport to the Royal Society of Tasmania at its meeting
on 13 June 1876, in Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania (for 1876), pp. 60-61 (1877), where M's view of the fossils is reported (M's letters
have not been found).
The beautiful [ferns] from the Carboniferous strata at Spring Bay will perhaps interest
you though they may be all well known species. If you can append the names when you
return the specimens I shall be greatly indebted to you and you may rest assured that
I will lose no opportunity of securing any further specimens that may fall in my way.
Amongst the fossils in the Roy. Soc. Museum there are a large number of tertiary specimens
(casts of leaves seeds &c) which are Tasmanian but from what precise localities we
do not know — would these be of service to you?
I was much charmed with the plates of the fossil seeds from your gold fields.
I have also to thank you for the pamphlet on Forest culture.
2
B73.11.01. This work still exists in the Allport Library and Museum of Fine Arts inscribed
by M: 'Morton Allport Esqr | With Ferd. von Mueller's best regards'.
3
B71.13.03?
Yours sincerely
Morton Allport