24/3/66
Dear Collegue.
I received not the Deodar seeds you so generously again secured, they undoubtedly having been left behind at Galle,1 where much of the Steamers good was left for despatch next month I have sent you by this mail seeds of the following highly useful trees.
Eucalyptus fissilis Ferd. Mueller2
Eucalyptus obliqua l'Heritier
Eucalyptus amygdalina Labillardière
Acacia Melanoxylon R Brown
I find in many cases the Deodar seeds do not germinate. Whether it is imperfection of albumen or chemical alteration of the seed by age that destroys the viability, I cannot say, But these kinds of seeds are more shy in germinating than even any others of Coniferae here unless Araucaria Cunninghami & A. excelsa. — All the plants raised by us as Pinus longifolia have turned out Pinus excelsa. You will see in my garden plan,3 that I am still wanting entirely of many of your Himalaian pines & all your Oaks except Q. lanata. Acorns if fresh collected rendered well dry & put into small canvas bags would travel quite well.4
Acacia Melanoxylon
Araucaria Cunninghami
Araucaria excelsa
Coniferae
Eucalyptus amygdalina
Eucalyptus fissilis
Eucalyptus obliqua
Pinus excelsa
Pinus longifolia
Quercus lanata
Sri Lanka.
No description of E. fissilis has been found. The name was used by Anonymous (1862), p. 19, for 'Messmate', as it was in the report of the Jurors on the timber exhibited at the Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne 1866-67 (Intercolonial exhibition of Australasia (1867), p. 216), but without attribution to an author. M noted that 'it is yet an unsettled point whether the E. fissilis should be separated as a species or as a variety from E. obliqua; the wood and bark of both are very distinct to the woodsplitters, builders, and commercial dealers' (M to Gardeners' chronicle, May 1875 (B75.06.01). Guilfoyle (1877), p. 25, attributes the name to M. The name was used in California, for example in a description of Ellwood Cooper's estate at Santa Barbara (Morning press (Santa Barbara), 30 June 1877, p. 2) and in a catalogue of trees and shrubs in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco (Board of Park Commissioners of San Francisco (1895), p. 37). Luehmann (1898), p. 6 notes under Eucalytptus obliqua '(sometimes cultivated under the name E. Fissilis)'.
B65.10.01 included a garden plan.
Text ends near bottom of the sheet without a valediction; letter may be incomplete.
Correspondent inferred from location and content of letter. Though there is no signature, the letter is in M’s hand.
Please cite as “FVM-66-03-24d,” 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