Document information

Physical location:

Handskr. Avdl., Universitetsbibliotek, Lund, Sweden. 93.05.25a

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Jacob Agardh, 1893-05-25 [93.05.25a]. 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/93-05-25a>, accessed September 11, 2025

25/5/93.
Es war für mich eine grosse Annehmlichkeit, edler Freund, heute den neuen wichtigen Band der Acta Ihrer ehrwürdigen physiogr. Gesellschaft zu erhalten mit den verschiedenen grossen Abhandlungen. Ihre unter diesen ist für uns hochwichtig. Welche Menge neuer ausführlicher Beobachtungen! Ich freue mich, dass meine Sendungen aus mehreren Theilen Australiens wieder mancherlei Neues geliefert haben. So habe ich doch auch für meine vielseitige Mühe und Ausgaben auch einen wissenschaftlichen Gewinn für meine Anstalt. So lange, wie mir die göttliche Vorsehung geistige Kraft gönnen mag, so lange werde ich mich auch immer für die Entwicklung der Algen Kunde bemühen, zumal da wir in Ihnen den Grossmeister haben, der Alles bald so schön zu verwerthen weiss.
Welch ein grosser Verlust, der des Nestor's Alphonse de Candolle. Ich hatte von ihm einen rührenden Brief noch, der erst 2 Wochen vor seinem Tode geschrieben war. In unserer Field Naturalists Club, dessen Patron ich bin, hielt ich über ihn eine Gedächtnis-Rede.
Sie immer ehrend, der Ihre
Ferd von Mueller
Unser Freund J. Br. Wilson wird bald wohl wieder Neues für Sie haben durch mich.
Wilson consultirte mich heute brieflich, da auf seinem Gute am Murray Flusse die Obstbaum Culturen ungünstig ausfallen.
25/5/93.
It was a great comfort for me, noble friend, to receive the new, important volume of the Acta of your venerable Physiographical Society today with the various large papers. Yours among these is highly important for us. What a host of new detailed observations! I am pleased that my consignments from several parts of Australia have again produced various new things.
1
Agardh (1892) contains references to collections sent by M, for example Hymenocladia filiformis collected at Champion Bay, WA, by Spalding and sent by M (p. 92).
So I do have even for my extensive trouble and expense also a scientific gain for my institute. As long as Divine Providence may grant me intellectual powers, I shall also always labour for the development of algal studies, especially since we have the grand master in you, who knows how immediately to use everything so beautifully.
What a great loss, that of the nestor Alphonse de Candolle. I had a touching letter from him that was written only two weeks before his death.
2
See A. de Candolle to M, 17 March 1893. Candolle died on 4 April 1893.
In our Field Naturalists Club, whose patron I am, I gave a memorial speech about him.
3
B93.06.04, republished in France as B93.10.01.
Always respectfully your
Ferd von Mueller
Our friend J. Br. Wilson will probably soon have something new for you again through me.
Wilson consulted me today by letter because the fruit-tree culture on his property on the Murray River is turning out unfavourably.
4
Wilson had supported the irrigation settlement at Mildura, Vic, '[helping] the enterprise along heartily with his voice, his pen and his purse. He owned two large plantations here ["Berners" and "Atherstane"], and he was one of the principal employers of labour on the settlement' ('Death of Mr. J. Bracebridge Wilson', Mildura cultivator, 2 November 1895, p. 8).