Ferdinand von Mueller

1

No addressee is shown but the cover sheet indicates that the letter went to the Surveyor-General's office.

10/3/82.

Allow me, honored Sir, to ask, whether the native Daisy, of which you gave a dried specimen to Mrs. Richards of Fowler's Bay, and of which you secured seeds at Oldea in 1880,

2

Both places in SA.

did grow in your garden? It is the extremely rare Erodiophyllum Elderi (F.v.M.), of which I never saw a growing specimen, so that I should like to cultivate it, especially with a view of examining the plant in a living state. Kindly give me any data, if you recollect, under what circumstances it occurs, of what color the flowers, how high it grows, whether local at Oldea etc. Sir Thomas Elder would doubtless be glad to have the plant also in his garden.

I am looking forward eagerly to the revelations of Leichhardt's and Classen's Journals.

3

In late 1880 a cattleman, J. R. Skuthorpe, claimed to have found the journals of Leichhardt and a member of Leichhardt's party, Adolf Classen, together with other relics. However, he failed to produce them when asked to do so. See also M to H. Parkes, 21 May 1881.

The unfortunate exploring party seems to have perished within S. Australian boundaries. Could poor Mr. Tietkens not be sent with a small party and camels to the real death-place of Leichhardt, to mark it as sacred on the map, to bury any bleaching bones of the explorers in the desert. It would not cost much, and the Victorian Government promised to give £300 towards such an errand in the cause of humanity & geography. All itinerations over even much forbidden

4

forbidding?

ground give much substantial return in the course of time and so it would be in this case.