To Joseph Hooker1    17 June 1869

17/6/69

 

By the Yorkshire, dear Dr Hooker, I have sent you two plants of Xanthorrhoea Australis, not very large, which I had lifted this week.2 The nearest sandy heath ground, where I could conveniently obtain them, is 70 miles from here.

It is doubtful whether you will succeed with these plants, though Mr Kidd sent successfully a N.S.W. Xanthorrhoeae to Kew some years ago.

I find, even when I place them into sandy heath-soil, that they die after a time and so is it with the Kingias. Still I may be more successful with new trials.

I thought it best to select two comparatively small plants for trial, so as not to incur for you an enormous freight. Large ones could be sent afterwards. It seems the plants live for a time on the sap of their stem and then go off. I packed them in a close case. That will be better and securer than a glass-case.

Let me remain

your regardful

Ferd von. Mueller

 

I hope you will see my good will to fulfill your wishes. I have no other Xanthorrhoea in Victoria except X. minor. From near Adelaide you might get X. semiplana (as well as X. quadrangulata)

 

Kingia

Xanthorrhoea Australis

Xanthorrhoea minor

Xanthorrhoea quadrangulata

Xanthorrhoea semiplana

 
1
MS annotation: 'Noted J.S.' (i.e. John Smith (1821-88)).
2
The receipt of 'a dry box containing Xanthorroea australis' was recorded at Kew on 28 September (RBG Kew, Kewensia, Inwards Book 1868–1872, p. 196, entry number 305).

Please cite as “FVM-69-06-17a,” 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 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/69-06-17a