Document information

Physical location:

Auckland Institute and Museum, Auckland, New Zealand. 96.08.21

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Thomas Cheeseman, 1896-08-21. 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/1890-6/1896/96-08-21-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

21/8/96.
Let me express my best thanks, dear Mr Cheeseman, for your kind sending of so full a set of
Carmichaelia

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s, which will be utilized under your honored name.
1
See M to T. Cheeseman, 14 August 1896.
I am surprised that you did not get an acknowledgement of the valuable gift of Coprosma, as I have a clear recollection, that I thanked you for this.
2
M requested a suite of Coprosmas in M to T. Cheeseman, 8 August 1895; no letter of thanks has been found.
But my annual letter writing from my own hands amounts to about 5000 (not 500) and about 1000 more are written through clerical aid. In such vast correspondence a letter might readily go astray, as I know from experiences indeed repeatedly. A propos Coprosma Mr Hemsley of Kew quite recently unites C. Baueriana from Norfolk-Isl and Lord Howe's Island with C. lucida,
3
See Hemsley (1896), p. 239.
which I do not regard as correct. What is your authoritative view on this subject.
Panicum spectabile

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, introduced by me into Australia and Polynesia, would serve you best when naturalized along watercourses. To us here it is so valuable, as we have abundance of feed on pastures during the cool season, which fails in the hot season, so dry here, when such an incomparable summer-grass comes to our rescue. Who is the President of your Acclimation-Soc. I might send him a copy of the latest edition of the "Select Plants".
4
B95.13.02.
I have no monenatery
5
monetary?
interest in the work; contrarily I purchase it for private gifts largely myself at the Gov. Printing Office. But I like this unique book, sold at cost-price, largely used also in NZ. Could you kindly induce some Auckland-Bookseller to keep some few copies in stock? I will write for the number of the Regensburg bot Zeitung required by you. My worldly private means nor my public resources did not allow me to obtain the annual volumes regularly though I secured the volumes of the last century and earlier part of this century by some chance already in my boyhood and was later for many years a subscriber, as I was elected an hon member of the Regensburg bot. Soc. nearly 50 years ago.
6
M was elected a corresponding member of the Regensburg Botanical Society in 1853 (see Regia Societas Botanica Ratisbonensis to M, 13 September 1853) and an honorary member in 1890 (see Regia Societas Botanica Ratisbonensis to M, 10 December 1890 (in this edition as 90-12-10c)).
Have you good specimens of
Uncinia filiformis

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(Colenso) which Mr Hemsley recently combined with my
Uncinia debilior

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from Lord Howe's Island?
7
See Hemsley (1896), p. 257.
I like to test the correctness of this view.
Let me hope, that you are happy and well.
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller
NZ Algs, if even only dried crisply, always acceptable
The shrubby Australian Atriplices ought to have a great future on the pastures of NZ also. I can send you seeds in quantity if you will distribute them.
Could you favor me with notes of the behavior of various Eucalypts at Auckland and perhaps elsewhere in the N. Island of NZ? I would utilize such data under your honored name You might, while looking through this new edition find that you could afford other addenda really recommendable for practical purposes of the industrial and breadwinning people.