Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M1, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 79.02.25

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Charles Birch to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1879-02-25. 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/1870-9/1879/79-02-25-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
MS found with a specimen of
Passiflora

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sp. (MEL 2234153). MS annotations by M: 'P.O. Clermont Q.L.', and 'Answ 13/3/79'. Letter not found.
"Clermont" Queensland. 25th Feby 1879
I trust you will my dear Baron excuse my pencil note the weather is so hot that the ink dries nearly as rapidly as I put it in the pen. I send you two specimens of
Passiflora

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from those mountains that Leichhardt first looked upon in this neighbourhood —the peaks on Peak Downs —also two other that look like
Swainsonia

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but not the species usually met with.
This country from what I have already seen of it will prove a very rich gold field — Granites, diorites, traps, basalt, with reefs of quartz — but the people are poor — water not abundant — and the probability is that it will be only scratched, until Capitalists take charge of the country. how many
Bauhinia

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s are catalogued? I saw several near the mountains unlike any I had previously seen — instead of the ordinary red, and white varieties — this had two large white petals as it were , in addition to the ordinary aspect of the flower, about the magnitude of a florin — of course this must be an enlargement of some part of the flower not conspicuous on the other varieties. I had no means at the time of preserving a specimen — but must do so — the fruit is thinner and broader than usual, and the leaves more sensitive to light — the leaves closing when the weather was cloudy and opening when the sun shone brightly.
I trust you have wholly recovered from the indisposition to which you alluded in your last letter
2
Letter not found.
— as old age creeps on we do not recuperate so quickly as in youth. I shall be 60 next year, as yet I do not feel my age much — but sooner or later comes the inevitable.
I shall leave my address at this post office "Clermont" to remain until called for
Again apologizing for the use of my pencil
Believe me
Yours sincerely
C. W. de Burgh Birch
Zelling