Document information

Physical location:

GRG 19/391, State Records of South Australia, Adelaide. 79.11.09

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Maurice Holtze, 1879-11-09. 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/79-11-09>, accessed September 11, 2025

9/11/79
Es freuet mich, geehrter Herr Landsmann, dass Sie die Pflanzen Ihrer Gegend erschöpfend suchen wollen u. glaube ich, dass dies durch die Sammlungen des Herrn Schultz nicht vollständig erreicht ist, so dass sich dort wohl noch viel Neues wird finden lassen. Es sollen bei Ihnen zwei Bambusrohre vorkommen; die niedrige Art mag aber doch vielleicht nur das immergrüne Schilf sein.
Schicken Sie doch auch freundlichst einen Sack voll Früchte des Gouty Stem tree (Adansonia) welche zum Austausch werthvoll sind.
Kann ich Ihnen Sämereien für dortige Gärten senden? Ich habe bereits das mächtige Teosinte Gras dort eingeführt. Algen von Ihrer Küste wären mir sehr erwünscht.
Mit besonderer Ergebenheit der Ihre
Ferd. von Mueller.
Wenn Sie Ihre Sammlungen für wissenschaftliche Zwecke recht wichtig machen wollen, so wäre es gut immer nach fruchttragenden reifen Exemplaren zu spähen; wenn diese nicht erlangbar sind, so finden sich mitunter halbreife Früchte, u. zuweilen die Schalen &c. &c. alter Früchte vergangner Jahreszeiten.
1
This sentence is on a separate sheet and may not have been part of the same letter. It is placed here because the advice it contains suggests that it is to be dated, with the rest of the letter, to the commencement of Holtze’s collecting career.
9/11/79.
I am pleased, dear fellow-countryman, that you intend investigating the plants of your region
2
i.e. the region around Darwin, where Holtze had been appointed curator of the botanic garden.
exhaustively and I believe that this was not completely attained through the collections of Mr Schultz,
3
Frederick Schultz e was botanist on George Goyder's expedition to the north coast of Australia in 1869 that selected the site for Darwin and surveyed the surrounding region.
so that probably much that is new can still be found there. You are supposed to have two kinds of bamboo occurring there; but the low growing species may perhaps be nothing other than the evergreen reeds.
Be so kind as to send me a bag full of the fruit of the Gouty Stem tree (Adansonia), which are valuable for exchange.
Can I send you seeds for the gardens there? I have introduced the mighty Teosinte grass there already.
4
In the 1881 edition of Select extra-tropical plants (B81.13.10) M noted under Euchlaena luxurians: 'It was first brought into notice by the Acclimatisation Society of Paris, and introduced into Australia by the writer.'
Algae from your coast would be very welcome.
Yours with particular devotion
Ferd. von Mueller.
If you want to make your collections really important for scientific purposes, it would be well to search always for ripe fruit-bearing specimens. When these are not available, you may occasionally find half-ripe fruit, and sometimes husks &c. &c. of old fruit from earlier seasons.
Adansonia