Ferdinand von Mueller

7/10/81.

Best thanks, dear Mr Harris, for your attention to the Livistona-palms. It seems to me a pity that the bower was removed, as it had no monetary value, and the fern- and palm-groups might thus under shelter have remained an ornament to the environs of the Exhibition-building. You will agree with me, that though they may live where they are, they would unprotected not form sightly objects. Can the bower be put up again? The palms are once rooted & established where they are; if as part of the garden plants round the Exhibition-building they cannot come under whatever horticultural surveillance is available there, then certainly it would be best to take them to the well sheltered gully of the Fitzroy-Park, but that should be done with the utmost of care. These Livistonas have now made young rootlets & ought to lift with a good ball of earth. Still Palms cannot be moved in an upgrown state, as you are aware, without risk. Thus after my leaving the bot Garden my 2 magnificent specimens of Ptychosperma and Livistona were ruthless destroyed, after have been 16 years ago planted by me in my Palm house, in not even so much precaution in removal being used as to cut merely the outmost roots & lift the main roots slightly and then leaving the Palms on the spot in the Palmhouse, til they had formed new rootlets, with a fair chance of making the moving of the Palms to an other spot successful, without sacrificing the growth of 16 years. Wendland in Herrenhausen, when his Livistona, planted in the King of England's Palm House in Hanover 120 years ago, became too tall, sunk it an other 20 feet successfully & thus preserved such a treasure. Of course, if I had not given order 6 month previous to lift the roots of the Palms, (now in the Exhibition ground) in the forests & at once to fill up the earth again, so that the Palms could repair easily the damage done in loosening their roots, we could not have them transferred in a living state from backwoods of New South Wales to Melbourne.

Trusting that your skill & kind interest in these palms will save them from danger, I remain regardfully your