Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1882-90, f. 269. 89.01.23

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Thiselton-Dyer, 1889-01-23. 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/1880-9/1889/89-01-23-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

23/1/89
1
Date stamped: Royal Gardens Kew 3. Mar. 89. Annotated in red ink by [by W. Watson?]: Ackt sent 8/3/89 (letter not found), in black ink [by Watson?]: 115/1889, and in pencil by Thiselton-Dyer: And 24.5.89 (letter not found).
By this mail, dear Mr Dyer, I beg to send you a branch of a Cactus-like Euphorbia, of which Governor McGregor just forwarded a plant from the Louisiades:
2
Archipelago SE of New Guinea.
In all probability this branch will reach you in a growing state, so that the species on culture may become definable. As yet we had no big succulent Euphorbia from New Guinea or Polynesia, altho E. corynoclada is also an almost arborescent cactus-like plant from an Island near Cape York.
3
Identified as Woiweer Island, a 'small islet … about ten miles west of Thursday-Island' in B86.04.03 (See APNI).
Regardfully
always your
Ferd. von Mueller
4
Annotated in black ink by Watson on the left half of f. 269 front:
Seeds
Livistona sp. Louisiades
Fagraea sp. "
Recd 4-3-89
Euphorbia dried up and long dead.
Could he establish plants and send them in a Wards Case?
The reciept of these items is noted in the 'Kew Inwards book 1888-1892', p. 147 in entry 115 for 1889, dated 5 March. All items are recorded as from Louisades Archipelago, with a later note 'Pacific Ocean' partially overwritten im a different hand on the first mention of 'Archipelago'.