Document information

Physical location:

Library, Royal Botanic Gardens, Edinburgh. 88.03.23a

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Frederick Bailey, 1888-03-23 [88.03.23a]. 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/1880-9/1888/88-03-23a-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
MS with a copy of M’s Systematic Census of Australian Plants (B83.03.04); one of M's calling cards with his coat of arms is pasted on to the title page.
Melbourne
23/3/88
With this post, dear Colonel Bailey,
2
i.e. Frederick Bailey (1840-1912), Inspector-General of Forests in India.
I send to Lahore an impression of my Census of Australian plants so that you may see, how the various Eucalypts are regionally distributed. But the united effect of clime and soil determines the fitness of any species for each locality, so that local tests are the only safe rule for selecting the species most promising for extensive culture.
3
This sentence is marked with a bracket in the margin.
Herewith samples of seeds of such sorts, as I have fresh available, others can come successively.
If you wrote to the Honorable the Premier of Victoria (without mentioning my name as having suggested it) you doubtless would be able to get my "iconography of Australian Acacias",
4
B87.13.04. There is a scored line in the margin against this paragraph.
yours being a public Department. Gov Publications of Victoria are only distributed through the Premiers Office. Best thanks for your sending of the admirable essays.
5
There are offprints of three papers by Bailey, all from this period, in the library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, namely F. Bailey (1887) [issued 1886], F. Bailey (1887a) and F. Bailey (1887b).
Regardfully
your
Ferd.von Mueller
What spec. of
Eucalyptus

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have you there growing already, and which are thriving there or elsewhere near you
Of course you have my Eucalyptography, 110 quarto plates with ample text
6
Issued in decades: B79.13.11; B80.13.14; B82.13.17; B84.04.04; B84.11.02. This sentence is a marginal note against the final paragraph before the valediction.