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From Ferdinand von Mueller to Alfred Russel Wallace   28 Feb 1873

Melbourne

bot Garden

28/2/73

It affords me very much pleasure, dear Mr Wallace, to send you such seeds of comparatively hardy plants as I have just at hand. I would advise you to have a portion of each sown in the Channel islands and elsewhere, so that the chances of your not only raising, but also establishing such plants may be augmented.

If you can in your rambles secure for me any well ripened seeds of English forest flowers and water-plants for naturalisation of such plants in Australia, I should feel very much indebted.

Will you allow me to send my poor photogram and ask for yours to be placed in my album of pictures of celebrated scientific travellers.1

Regardfully

Ferd. von Mueller

The seeds go to the care of Dr Hooker.2

3I may be able to send you soon some seeds of Australian alpine plants4

Would you oblige me, by giving me the adresses of any friends of yours in tropical America, willing to send me in exchange of seeds of showy Australian plants (such as the Callistemons &c) seeds of Bambusaceae, Palms &c

Have any special publications on New Guinea recently appeared? If so, pray put Mess Dulau & co in the way to send them to me.

Bambusaceae

Callistemon

1

There is a photograph of Wallace in M's only surviving album at MEL, that may have been sent in response to this request.

2

Wallace, in beginning his correspondence with M, had asked Hooker for permission to use his name and to send his card to M. Hooker replied, 'By all means use my name & send my card to Mueller. Entre nous, do not forget the Baron von - he is as vain as a peacock' (J. Hooker to A. R. Wallace, 26 November 1872; British Library, BL Add. 46435, ff. 258-9 (Beccaloni (ed.) https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP2292 [accessed 24 April 2022]).

3

The remainder of the text is written on one side of f. 263.

4

Wallace had apparently asked for seeds of hardy alpine plants (J. Hooker to A. R. Wallace, see n. 1 above: 'I shall be glad to hear if you succeed with any of the Australian alpines. We have failed with them uniformly'). Wallace acknowledged the receipt of the seeds in a letter to J. Hooker, 30 April 1873 ((Beccaloni (ed.) https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/wallace/letters/WCP4742 [accessed 24 April 2022]).

Please cite as “FVM-73-02-28,” 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 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/73-02-28