Document information

Physical location:

A38, The Royal Geographical Society of Australasia (Victorian Branch), Mitchell Library, The State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 94.04.20

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Alexander Macdonald, 1894-04-20. 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/1890-6/1894/94-04-20-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
MS annotation by A. C. Macdonald: 'Please return this note to A. C. Macdonald 70 Queen St'.
20/4/94.
On the next page, dear Mr Macdonald, you will find the copied dedication of a new plant of mine,
2
Handwritten copy of M's dedication of Cymbidium Boweri, named in honour of Lieut. Bower, RN, commanding officer of HMS Sandfly, killed by natives in the Solomon Islands in 1880, and published in B83.08.03.
Macdonald evidently sent this to the Australasia n. In 'The Sandfly Massacre', Australasian (Melbourne), 28 April 1894, p. 20, the newspaper reported that 'A correspondent lately asked the date of the Sand f ly massacre at the Solomon Islands. With the assistance of Mr. A. C . M acd onald and Baron v on Mueller w e ha ve since found that it happened in October 1880. … The memo, from Baron von Mueller, enabling us to discover the precise d ate, is an extract from the Southern Science Record , describing an orchid which was brought from Florida Island in 1881 b y Lieutenant Goldflach , of H . M . S. Emerald. '
in connection with the "Sandfly". It was — I think — about 1880 when the catastrophe happened at the Solomon-Islands. By a memory error I thought it was in N. Guinea, where the disaster occurred.
3
New Guinea given in M to A. Macdonald, 11 April 1894.
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller
Mr Arthur King could give you all the information about that voyage.
4
See A. King to M, 27 December 1883, and notes thereto.