Document information

Physical location:

Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide, SA. 84.01.04a

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Ralph Tate, 1884-01-04 [84.01.04a]. 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/1880-9/1884/84-01-04a-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

Drysdale.
1
Vic.
4/1/84.
Let me thank you, dear Prof. Tate, for your sympathetic letter, and also for your kind sending of the 6th vol.
2
i.e. of the Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, issued in December 1883.
I took it at once to a sheltered spot on the coast here, to look over the pages, as I am here since 3 weeks, to see what the sea-air will do for my chest-complaint. My general health has become improved here, but my cough is not much alleviated; so I contemplate to go about the end of the month to some dense ferntree-forest for some weeks, with the hope of recovery.
The volume is most interesting, and your efforts for perfecting the knowledge of the native flora are quite heroic! especially as you give such extensive attention to the Geology of S.A. also.
Initiating your great field naturalists club on the Newyears day, augurs well. This is a splendid way to popularize Zoology, Botany and Geology!
3
A Field Naturalists' Section was established within the Royal Society of SA by a resolution passed on 4 September 1883. Rules for the Section were adopted at a meeting of the Society on 2 October and Tate delivered an inaugural lecture in the first week of November. The New Year's Day field excursion to which M refers was in fact the third to be held, not the first; the earlier ones were on 24 November and 8 December 1883. See Transactions and Proceedings of the Royal Society of South Australia, vol. 7 (1883), pp. 112-7.
I finish here the 10th Decade of the Eucalyptography;
4
B84.11.02.
it is nearly ready now.
May the new year to you and those dear to you be a happy one, that is the wish of your regardful
Ferd von Mueller
Mr Bentham has send
5
sic.
me a mournful letter, a parting one in life, with touching concluding words of gratitude.
6
G. Bentham to M, November 1883 (in this edition as 83-11-00).