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82.04.00b

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Ferdinand von Mueller to the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1882-04 [82.04.00b]. 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/1880-9/1882/82-04-00b-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Hardihood of Cycads', Gardeners' chronicle , 20 May 1882, p. 678 (B82.05.03). It is introduced by 'Baron von Mueller writes from Melbourne:—'. It is dated to early April 1882 as the latest likely date that it could have been sent to appear in this issue.
I see by one of the December numbers of the Gardeners' Chronicle that
Cycas siamensis

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resists the freezing point.
2
Gardeners' chronicle , 10 December 1881, pp. 757-8, noting that Revue horticole had reported that 'this fine Cycad, though a native of Cochin China, is yet able to resist a temperature as low as the freezing point'. The report speculated that other Cycads would also be hardy.
But in all probability the grand
Cycas media

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would also endure open-air temperature, sinking occasionally quite as low, if the plants were well established previously by shelter culture, and if the position of such a 'Pine Palm' be not exposed to cutting winds. I kept
Cycas revoluta

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with impunity in the open air of the Melbourne Botanic Garden through several years unhurt, though sometimes the thermometer sank as low as 24° Fahr. for a few hours.
3
There is an asterisk at this point, leading to a footnote: 'See Select Plants , Sydney edition, p. 97' (i.e., B81.01.04).
In Southern Japan, far outside of the tropics, though in an insular clime, it will have to submit naturally to some frosts also. Hardier still than the Cycas species are the Macrozamias, of which M. spiralis grows naturally as far south as 37° in East Australia, and M. Fraseri as far as 35° in West Australia, and I believe that they are quite hardy in Southern Tasmania as far as 43°. I have no doubt that all the other Macrozamias could also stand some frost, unless perhaps M. Denisoni.
4
M. denisonii?
As is well known, one genuine Zamia is indigenous in Florida, and several extend into extra-tropical regions of Mexico—while in Central America Z. Chigua or an allied species ascends to 7000 feet. All these will have to encounter some amount of frost. In fact, it is clear that many
Cycadeae

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could with safety be placed unprotected in localities occupied in gardens by the hardiest of Palms, and there is every reason to believe that within British ground in Europe they could be kept in the open air of the Channel Islands, if not even at Arran. That even very tall Zamia and Cycas stems can be exported at very long distances packed as dead goods in closed wooden cases deprived of leaves and soil, for subsequent revival in gardens, I have shown very many years ago.
5
See M to J. Hooker, 7 August 1872, and M to the Gardeners' chronicle, April 1873 (in this edition as 73-04-00).
The South African species of
Encephalartos

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endure the night frosts of Melbourne also perfectly well.