The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Govt. House ¶ Fiji ¶ Dear Baron Von Mueller. ¶ ¶ Thanks for your very welcome note ¶ Letter not found. ¶ ¶ and the seed accompanying it. ¶ ¶ The latter were planted at once ¶ ¶ and some of them

Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M76, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 86.00.00

Preferred Citation:

John Thurston to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1886. 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/1880-9/1886/86-00-00-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

MS letter head: 'ESSE QUAM VIDERI' [To be rather than to seem].

Govt. House

Fiji

Dear Baron Von Mueller.

Thanks for your very welcome note

Letter not found.

and the seed accompanying it. The latter were planted at once and some of them — notably the interesting, and to me new, Madagascar ground nut — have already germinated & are well above ground

I shall not fail to send you a photo of the Musa you require. In a former note

See J. Thurston to M, 2 April 1886, which provides the basis for accepting the tentative dating of the present letter to later in 1886, Thurston seeming to imply that M had not yet responded to the earlier note.

I mentioned [that] a disease had attacked this family of plants — principally M. cavendishii but my M. uranoscopa

M. uranoscopus ?

have also suffered.

I will also send you photos of the male and female Cycad you so kindly described for me many years ago

See J. Thurston to M, 2 October 1882. Based on Thurston's specimens, M provided in B82.08.02 (republished as B83.07.02) a more complete description of Cycas seemanii than that given by Braun (1876a), p. 114 when he named it.

I am applying photography to my very humble botanical pursuit and find it most useful. The process I adopt is the "Bromide" which is comparatively permanent.

With kind regards

very faithfully yours

John B. Thurston.

Musa Cavendishii

Musa uranoscopa