Melbourne bot. Garden,
26/9/65
Honored and dear Sir.
I have gratefully to acknowledge the receipt of your friendly letter of the 25 Aug1 together with a report by Mr Clifton on the indications of camps of white men at Sharks Bay and have to thank you also for the transmission of the remnants of a double-barrelled gun I simultaneously received. It is indeed very kind of you, that amidst so multifarious duties you have given so close attention to poor Leichhardt's cause. I anticipate, that the account given to Mr Walcott about the demise of Europeans in the interior of W. Australia is as unreliable as all else we have heard respecting the fate of the lost traveller. It is however natural, that in the interest of the expedition sent out by the Ladies,2 every other enquiry should be pursued to attain the chivalrous object in view; hence I trust you will pardon my intrusion. If the locality of the supposed disaster is so near or within the settlements, the account can of course have no value, for some marked trees or other indications of Leichhardt's presence would have been found. I will forward the double barrelled gun to Sydney, from whence Leichhardt took his equipment in 1847.
Would it be possible to obtain from any official stationed at Camden Harbor3 a bag ful of the fruits of the Gouty stem tree (Adansonia Gregorii Ferd Mueller) If I not err the tree (figured in Capt Stokes work4) grows as far south as Camden Harbor & if so the fruits could be collected with the utmost ease. I gathered a large quantity in Arnhems land,5 lying dry under the trees; but they were lost in the vessel on the way to Sydney. The species is as yet no where under cultivation. Sir Geo. Grey speaks of an Araucaria in the Glenelg River.6 Of this fruit and branchlets are much desired as well as seeds, to compare the specific relation of this pine to the Norfolk Island and Moreton Bay7 Araucaria. I will gladly furnish in reciprocation at any time tropical plants or their seeds for growth in your northern districts.
Pray commend me to the friendly remembrance of his Excellency & let me remain
your regardful
Ferd. Mueller
The Honorable
Fr. P. Barlee &c &c &c
Mr Drummond might send his venerable fathers plants to me, so that I could furnish notes on them for Bentham's work.8
Adansonia Gregorii
Araucaria
Letter not found.
Ladies' Leichhardt Search Expedition, 1865-7.
Buccaneer Archipelago, WA.
Stokes (1846), vol. 2, p. 116.
NT.
Glenelg River, NW Australia; Grey (1841), vol. 1, p. 248. No specimens of any Araucaria from Western Australia are listed in AVH (accessed 17 September 2020).
Qld.
M to G. Bentham, 5 February 1866, reports that M had just received James Drummond’s collection from his son, also James, apparently by purchase: see M to the Gardeners’ Chronicle, July 1888 (in this edition as 88-07-00) (B88.08.01, p. 212).
MS annotation: 'Answered private note | F937 | 12.10.65'. Letter not found.
Please cite as “FVM-65-09-26,” 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