Melbourne bot Garden
31/8/72
Last year, dear Judge Pohlman, I furnished several thousands of plants for the old Cemetery, which institution recently passed into your trust. These plants were doing well and are mostly valuable, including many rare pines, evergreen oaks &c.
They are at present utterly neglected, suffocated by weeds, and suffering in many other ways. Would it not be possible, that at least one man was regularly employed in the area, which is not only a large one, but also a sacred one, and which is seen daily by so very many people passing the place. With a little care, such as one man could give, the young trees will soon be an ornament, right in the city. I could also furnish flower seeds &c to render the ground more beautiful, if only a person was there to attend to the sowing & subsequent weeding.
Trusting you and your honored colleagues1 will give my request their kind consideration I remain your regardful
Ferd. von Mueller
The Board of Trustees of the Melbourne General Cemetery: Robert Williams Pohlman (Chairman), Charles McCarthy, David Ogilvy, Robert Smith, Frederick Cooper, Isaac Hart. See also A. Purchas to M, 4 September 1872 (in this edition as 72-09-04b).
MS annotation by A. Purchas: 'Recd. 4-9-72 and acknowledged same day A.P.'.
Please cite as “FVM-72-08-31,” 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