To [Henry Edwards]1    5 November 1860

5/11/60.

Dear Sir

It will aford me much pleasure to attend to your request of having a small collection of our duplicate specimens of dried plants made up for you previous to your home-journey.

I presume you will kindly let me know when you leave.2 For some little while I would find it difficult to spare time for selecting the plants.

Regardfully yours

Ferd. Mueller

1
No addressee is indicated but the letter is now among Edwards’ papers at Harvard.
2
Edwards did not leave Australia until 1865 when he went to New Zealand, and then the following year to the USA (advertisement for sale of library and art works ‘prior to his departure from the colony’, Argus , 6 February 1865, p. 2; Brown-May & May [1997], p. 412). M may have expected Edwards to be leaving as his contract as theatre manager was until the end of November 1860, although he continued to fulfil the role and successfully sued the proprietor when it was terminated ( Argus , 6 April 1861, p. 6). Edwards continued to act and manage theatres in Melbourne and Ballarat until 1865. He and M remained in contact after he left Australia (see M to H. Edwards, 3 February 1872) and he supplied M with seeds from San Francisco (M. to J. Grant, 8 March 1869).

Please cite as “FVM-60-11-05,” 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 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/60-11-05