To Henry Warde   13 August 1864

Melbourne botanic Garden

13. Aug. 1864.

Sir

In reply to your note of yesterday I have the honor to inform you, that I have received this day by the courtesy of the Agent of the P. & O. S. N. Company1 free of charge, a Wardian Case received from the British Vice Consul at Frontera.2 I regret to be obliged to add, that the case suffered so much externally in the transmission as to have lost its contents with exception of six plants of vine, the life of which is nearly extinct.

A letter3 from the Consul adressed to me arrived by the mail, to which I shall not fail to reply, soliciting a new transmission of the valuable varieties of vines intended for us.

I shall do myself the honor of forwarding to his Excellency for kind transmission a small parcel of seeds of the Blue Gumtree (Eucalyptus Globulus) as a reciprocate for the sending just received, which must have been valuable when it left Spain. These seeds will enable the Consul to naturalize a highly valuable and rapidly growing tree in the locality in which he resides.

I have the honor to be, Sir,

your most obedient and humble servant

Ferd. Mueller, M.D.,

Director of the botan Gardens.

 

H. L. Warde Esq.

Privat Secretary to his Excellency

Sir Charles Darling, K.C.B. & &c4

 
 

Eucalyptus Globulus

1
Peninsular & Oriental Steamship Navigation Company.
2
Jerez de la Frontera, Spain. The British representative was a Mr Furlong (National Archives, London, CO 411/8, p. 270).
3
Letter not found.
4
See also M to H. Warde, 16 August 1864 (in this edition as 64-08-16a), in which M forwarded the promised seed. Governor Darling despatched M's letter and another with a parcel of Blue Gum seeds to London on 23 August 1864. The seeds were forwarded by the Colonial Office to the Foreign Office on 9 November 1864 for transmission to the Consul (National Archives, London, CO 411/8, pp. 248-9).

Please cite as “FVM-64-08-13,” 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/64-08-13