To [Thomas Anderson]1    24 March 1866

24/3/66

Dear Collegue.

I received not the Deodar seeds you so generously again secured, they undoubtedly having been left behind at Galle,2 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. Mueller3

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,4 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. […]5

 

Acacia Melanoxylon

Araucaria Cunninghami

Araucaria excelsa

Coniferae

Eucalyptus amygdalina

Eucalyptus fissilis

Eucalyptus obliqua

Pinus excelsa

Pinus longifolia

Quercus lanata

 
Correspondent inferred from location and content of letter. Though there is no signature, the letter is in M’s hand.
Sri Lanka.
APNI treats E. fissilis as a nomen nudum from Guilfoyle (1877), p. 25.
B65.10.01 included a garden plan.
Text ends near bottom of the sheet without a valediction; letter may be incomplete.

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 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/66-03-24d