27/12/66
This day, dear Prof. Balfour, I receive with the arrival of the Great Britain bill of loading of the case with plants you so kindly sent. I shall not receive it before the mail closes, but meanwhile give you my cordial thanks for your libera[l] goodness.
The Mesembryanthemum which safely reached you I have described a few months ago as M. tegens.1 It covers immense patches of low flats with an uninterrupted carpet & I use it for edging[s]. It comes near some Cape species & has the flowers (staminodia &c) almost of M. geminatum. I restrict Dracaena to D. draco & any species with horny albumen & short embryo & include in Cordyline all the species with oily amygdaline albumen & long embryo.
My fifth volume of fragmenta will reach you in a few weeks.
Your ever regardful & grateful
Ferd. Mueller
Cordyline
Dracaena draco
Mesembryanthemum geminatum
Mesembryanthemum tegens
Please cite as “FVM-66-12-27a,” 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 23 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/66-12-27a