Ferdinand von Mueller

1/12/95.

The last mail brought me, dear Prof. Milne-Edwards, a kind letter from Prof. Lacroix,

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Letter not found.

through which I learn with joy, that the great specimen of Nickol-ore, which it had cost so much trouble to obtain from South-Western Tasmania, had arrived. A letter to this effect, written by the distinguished mineralogist of the Musée,

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i.e. Lacroix.

is evidently lost. My correspondence is about 6000 letters annually, so that occasionally a letter from some cause or the other may not reach me. I regret having given you and him such great trouble about this wonderful specimen, but I was so very anxious about its safety, as for size it could not be replaced. Just now the Agent of the Messageries maritimes

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The French shipping company servicing the South Pacific run.

informs me, that a printed form, to be glued on boxes destined for the Musée, is existing, and that such a printed signature ensures safety of sending to your great institution. If therefore you could cause some impressions of this print to be sent to me, I could utilize them for future sendings. By the Armand Behic, which Messag. marit. Steamer leaves the Port of Melbourne this day , I send two boxes to the Musée. They contain not much zoologic for the Musée, as the only rarities, which I could lately obtain, are a lot of Coleoptera from North-Eastern Australia, among which there may be novelties. I obtained these in interchange from Mr Ch. French, the Gov. Entomologist of Victoria,

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Charles French Snr.

but he did not collect them, as he was never travelling outside colony Victoria. I explored in N. Queensland with Mr Gregory in 1856 , after having in 1855 under him and his brother penetrated to Central-Australia.

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During the North Australian Exploring Expedition, 1855-6.

So these Coleoptera could be considered as coming from me and him jointly, should new descriptions arise from their examin[ation].

I wrote to Prof Lacroix also by this weeks mail, in answer to his letter,

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M's letter not found.

and as both the cases, now forwarded contain rare minerals. The Algs, mentioned in the byefollowing list,

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List not found.

are of no importance, only used like the sponges as packing material for the minerals-packages. Algs are usually sent by post to our friend Dr Bornet, who will doubtless send duplicates to the "Herbier" of the Musée. I had no additional material of Nuytsia from West Australia nor of Atkinsonia from New South Wales (extremely rare) for Prof Van Tieghem, but hope, that the extensive material forwarded some few months ago, reached that celebrated Anatomist. It was the second large lot of these Loranthaceae (partly in Alcohol), not the smaller preliminary lot sent many months ago.

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Van Tieghem had published a number of papers on the anatomy and classification of the Loranthaceae, including one on Nuytsia (Tieghem (1893)), the most recent being Tieghem (1895), read at the 2 February 1895 meeting of the Société botanique de France. Tieghem (1896) draws this work together.

The Adansonia-fruits (of my A. Gregorii) will please Prof Cornu, as showing the variability of size of matured fruit. Boomerangs of the natives are now very difficult to obtain

All the distinguished professors of the Musée and especially you as the dignified Director must be very busy . So I will not trouble you with writing letters of acknowledgement. But it will be gratifying to me, if I obtained merely a postcard , announcing the save

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safe?

final arrival of any sending of mine and so the present. The two cases now are under the obliging surveillance of Sub-Captain Castellan, who promised to see at Marseille (then French Winter) to the transit for Paris. So I feel no anxiety this time about the safety of my present contribution, the control other wise on the way being imperfect. As an acknowledgement, I presented the Captain and him with several Todea-ferns (far rarer than Dicksonias). Wishing you and all the Professors a happy new year

I named and described the Adansonia Gregorii when I discovered it 1855 in North Western Australia. It grows no where else and only one other spec was then known but a third was since discovered in Madagascar.

I trust that the case of Xanthorrhoea minor (in a growing state) arrived at the Jardin des Plantes before severe Winter-frosts.