Melbourne bot Garden
15/12/71.
Your excellent son, dear Mr Guilfoyle, asked me, when sending the plants kindly from the Tweed,1 to return small specimens of each for identification. By some mishap, the separated and named fragments, intended for the young Gentleman, were mislaid and turned only up again within the last days. My accommodation here is so excessively narrow and scanty, that cases of this kind easily occur & thus must not be judged harshly.
These specimens are now returned to you; may I ask you to forward them kindly to the Tweed?
I have only sent small portions back, as it will be in young Mr Guilfoyle's interest, that good specimens of his should be preserved here for reference in our permanent State collection.
your regardful
Baron Von Mueller
William Guilfoyle was managing the family property at Cudgen, Tweed River valley, NSW, and had sent a case of plants via his father that was acknowledged in M to W. Guilfoyle, 14 August 1871.
Please cite as “FVM-71-12-15b,” 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