From Ferdinand von Mueller to Thomas Gore Browne   17 Jan 1866

Melbourne bot. Garden

17/1/66.

I feel most grateful to your Excellency for the very kind manner, in which you were pleased to respond to my solicitations for obtaining some skull and perhaps skeleton of one of the Tasmanian aborigines.¹ Though the burial places of these people must be respected & may be as sacred to their race as those conce[...]² the remains of the departed of ours, yet it may still deserve your Excellencys consideration whether not now, when the original Tasmanians are almost extinct, for scientific requirement such bones as are required may be disinterred at Flinders's Island.³

I take this opportunity of bringing before your Excellencys special & favorable notice, that the oil steamed or distilled from the foliage of the Eucalyptus amygdalina (or Tasmanian Peppermint) has become an article of Commerce in this colony. Among 30 kinds of oils distilled from plants furnished by me for the purpose of exhibiting the oil in 1862 at home, that of the Eucalyptus amygdalina proved the most important, 1 Ctw.⁴ of fresh leaves yielding 4 lb of oil! Mr Bosisto has exported it by the ton since from here & as it is in great demand for dissolving other essential oils for scented soap manufacture and as this particular Eucalyptus exists only in Tasmania & Victoria & very abundantly in your colony, a new industry might readily be commenced with it in your territory. The leaves show the copious transparent oil dots readily by transmitted light even to the unarmed eye.

Yours in deep obedience

Ferd Mueller

I do not think Mr Bosisto's patent or monopoly extends to Tasmania⁵

Eucalyptus amygdalina