Melbourne bot. Garden,
24. July 62
My dear Sir William.
By the Roxburgh Castle I have forwarded the rest of my Thalamiflorae for Mr Bentham's perusal. From the bye-following memorandum you will observe, that now 123 fascicles are forwarded.2 In the case pr. Roxburgh Castle I have included 2 parcels Algae for Prof Harvey.
From a report of our Exhibition Agent by last mail, he thinks the timber in the Exhibition does not bear favorable comparison with that of some other countries3 — I confidently await the jurors opinion thereon. But as your own authoritive4 judgement & that of Dr Hooker will be no doubt appealed to, I would beg to remark, that we cannot in Victoria enter into competition as to the variety of native timber with either New South Wales or Queensland, as we have a territory stretching rather through degrees of longitude than of latitude and thus a more cold & uniform climate under which Eucalyptus forms the main-timber. I am confident, that with less exertions 300 sp. of timber can be gathered in N. S. Wales or Queensland than 100 in Victoria. But it is to be born in mind, that we are compensated like in Tasmania by the vast extent of certain Eucalypti over the country it thus giving us of many good timbers inexhaustible exuberance in lieu of a great variety of select & not copiously available species.5 It would therefore be highly injust to expect, that our colony should have furnished the same variety. We have only 120 sp. timber trees in Victoria & of these nearly 100 are exhibited, therefore much more completely demonstrating the actual resources of our colony, than the local collections formed in some other parts of Australia. That the N. S. Wales collection has many species, such as Flindersia &c, under more than one specific name, I am persuaded.
Having written very fully to Mr Bentham6 it remains for me this time only to wish you most cordially all happiness & health.
Ever most regardfully
yours
Ferd Mueller
Sir W.J. Hooker
K.H. &c &c &c
Eucalyptus
Flindersia
Thalamiflorae
Please cite as “FVM-62-07-24b,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/62-07-24b