Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M1, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 77.02.03

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

William Bacchus to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1877-02-03. 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/1870-9/1877/77-02-03-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
MS found with a specimen of Vicia sativa ssp. nigra (MEL 2097120), collected on 3 February 1877.
Dear Baron von Mueller
Many thanks for sending the volume of select plants
2
B76.12.04.
it goes far to supply a want always existing and at the present time increasing it will be very useful for schools and to persons like myself who cultivate as an instructive recreation any new plants likely to be of use I wish you could have given some illustrations but that could hardly be expected I am often troubled to find out species of plants sent to me under common names from want of illustrations to refer to as an instance I have been trying in vain to discover what species the enclosed plant belongs to the seeds of which with others of similar kinds I got some years ago from the Melbourne bot gardens this sort is hardy quick growing and bearing well but the peculiar form of the leaves puzzle me it was labelled chicklings I should like to know the proper name. I have been reminded that I have forgotten to thank you in the name of my servants for the books you so kindly sent after your visit last winter I thought my Son would have taken the message for me when he called on you as he told me he had promised to do before starting for Queensland but it was fated he was not to start as he broke his leg at a skating rink a few days after coming to Melbourne, he is now here all right again and hopes to make a fresh start in a week or two I read in the Leader
3
Walter K Bissell, letter to the editor, 'Third fascicle of educational plants', Leader (Melbourne), 9 December 1876, p. 7.
that you have issued an additional part of dried specimens of native plants and hope the specimens were sufficient.
4
If Bacchus had supplied specimens of the water fern for the third and final fascicle of M’s ‘educational collection’ of dried plant specimens, issued in late 1876, the effort was in vain because the genus was not included in the collection; see ‘Educational Collections Distributed’, RB MSS M83, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
When you get seeds of the tussock grass please recalled how desirous I am to try it in this climate With our united kind regards
I remain
Yours faithfully
W. H. Bacchus.
Peerewur
5
Bacchus's homestead near Bacchus Marsh, Vic.
3rd Feb 1877
Baron von Mueller