Document information

Physical location:

Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide, SA. 83.10.25a

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Ralph Tate, 1883-10-25 [83.10.25a]. 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/1880-9/1883/83-10-25a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

25/10/83.
To day, dear Prof. Tate, your young friend, Mr Newman, whose grandfather and parent I knew,
1
Ferdinand Neumann from Dresden and his wife and children were fellow passengers with M on Hermann von Beckerath when they emigrated to SA in 1847.
brought kindly the parcel of plants from you. Being still by my cough confined to within the walls of the rooms here, I could show the young Gentleman no further or special attention; he is a polite and clever youth.
Nearly all the plants were named with exactitude by you; so you need little help from me.
The few critical species want careful connected study; if we cannot at once get the time for that, let us not retard other publications on that account. Additions will always have to be made; so it does not matter much, whether they are made earlier or later.
A main point for both of us is, to keep our health, and not to overtax our working power.
"Rome was not built in one day".
If anything is ready for the press, let it be passed through, before others step in perhaps.
The Census of S.A. plants,
2
It is not clear to what Census M refers; probably Tate (1880), perhaps including the additions published in Tate (1882) and Tate (1882b). Tate (1883a) had been read to the Royal Society of SA on 2 October 1883, and it is possible that M received a proof copy of that for his views before it was published in December 1883. Tate had also a series of local lists, for example Tate (1883b) and Tate (1883c) that would also have been in proof, and it is possible that the information sought from M may have been relevant to any or all of these.
as marked by you, gives me an exact idea, what you still require. I will attend to this, so soon as I can; but I may have to go for a week or two to the sea-air, on account of my bronchial catarrh. Then also just the large Sonderian collection has arrived
3
See M to G. Berry, 20 October 1883 (in this edition as 83-10-20a).
– 38 boxes, which I shall have to commence unpacking and to some extent sorting next week, and that will take some time. So let the critical species stand over, til we both breath a little freer! The trip to Kang. Isl. will do you some good in health.
4
Kangaroo Island, SA. See also Tate (1883).
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Any marked novelty can be worked at once.
The spring in Kang Island will be late this year.
Have you any positive observation of the Melitose from Euc. viminalis by Cicadeous insects?