Melbourne bot. & zool Garden
16. May 1860.
My dear Prof. Gray.
My principle reason for adressing you today consists in bringing under your notice, that a box with dried plants seeds & the last number of my Fragmenta1 also some sheets of my flora & plates2 etc. was forwarded to you under care of Capt. Cate, Commander of the ship "Black Sea" bound in a few days for New Bedford from Sydney. I regret only, that the collection of plants is not more worthy of your acceptance. — It will however ere long be followed, si fata velint,3 by a more extensive one.
Allways full of immodest wishes for this establishment, I would beg to solicit, that you will kindly send me N.A.4 Rubi, when in a dormant state, of such species as are close at Hand. They will be both useful & ornamental.
Dr. Steetz some time since in one of his ingenious & learned letters5 when with admiration referring to you, says of you: botanicorum facile primus,6 a judgment in which I fully concur, & which you fully are entitled to after R. Br.'s labours terminated.7
A most excellent & kind friend of mine, Mr. Hooper, a merchant of Melbourne, now permanently returning to the U. States, has kindly taken charge of the elaboration of the extratropical Eucalypti, just issued.8
With my most sincere admiration and attachment, my dear Dr Gray,
your humble
Ferd. Mueller.
The Cereus gigantea9 has grown beautifully & is now in the possession of many gardens.
Cereus gigantea
Probably Fascicle 12 (B60.05.01), issued in May 1860.
Components of B62.03.03. It is not certain how many sheets had been printed by the time of this letter, but sheet K, pp. 73- 80, was printed in June (see M to W. Nicholson, 3 July 1860).
If the fates allow.
North American.
Letter not found.
Indisputably the first among botanists.
Robert Brown died on 10 June 1858. M no doubt had in mind Alexander von Humboldt's description of Bown as ‘botanicorum facile princeps’ [indisputably the prince of botanists].
Samuel T. Hoooper of the Boston firm Newell, Hooper & Stephens who opened a commssion agent business in Melbourne and Sydney in 1853 (circular announcement, 19 January 1853), and operated until 1860, when the Andrew Newell took it over and traded as Newell & Co, (Argus, 1 Febuary 1860, p. 1), but he has not been further identified; B60.05.01, pp. 32-71.
Cereus giganteus?
Please cite as “FVM-60-05-16,” 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