To Asa Gray   17 November 1859

Melbourne bot. & zool Garden

17. Nov. 59

 

My dear Professor Gray.

I was equally delighted with your kind letter1 and your valuable contribution of plants & seeds pr. "Huntress" & am especially indebted to you for the singular Niviusia.2 The numerous publication, all of depth & clearness, testify to the great assiduity and profound knowledge, which you display, and I congratulate myself that you condescended to enter with me in a so frequent intercourse of exchange & correspondence. I hope to be able to make up at the end of the season (Febr. or March) a large collection of dried specimens & seeds. Meanwhile also the first vol. (containing Thalamiflorae) of the "plants of Victoria"3 & also of the Fragmenta will be out,4 & my report on the garden5 and also on Mr Stuart's plants6 from the N.W. interior of South Australia. The phil. Institute begs to offer its most grateful acknowledgement to the academy for the liberal donation of your volumes7 so replete with important information, & only regrets that our young society is not yet strong enough to offer an equivalent acceptable to the scientific men of your great state.

The official acknowledgement will come through Dr Macadam.

With my sincerest admiration & regard I remain, my very

dear Professor,

your attached

Ferd. Mueller.

 

There is great demand here for Podophyllum as a medicinal herb.8 Could you favor me with a few seeds?

 

Niviusia

Podophyllum

Thalamiflorae

 
1
Letter not found.
2
Neviusia?
3
B62.03.03.
4
B59.12.02.
5
B60.01.01.
6
B60.06.01.
7
At an ordinary meeting of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria, 16 November 1859, the following contributions were laid upon the table: '"Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences," Vols. I. to IV. inclusive (dating from May, 1846, to May, 1848); also Parts I. and II. of Volume VI. (new series) of the Memoirs of the "American Academy of Arts and Sciences" — by the Academy'. See Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria (1860) p. xxviii.
8
The root of this plant was a source of the alkaloid Berberin. See B72.13.02.

Please cite as “FVM-59-11-17,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 20 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/59-11-17