To Edward Ramsay   24 March 1876

24/3/76

 

The plant, sent by you, dear Mr Ramsay, is Euodia hortensis of Forster1 among Rutaceae. It is not rare in Polynesia.

I gladly accept your offer of some of the new Cycas seeds, especially as in the still continued ruin of the Department I must rely entirely on private friends for keeping up the means for interchanges.

It is a pity, that we did not get even one leaf and one male and female scale, to arrive at a correct idea of what the species is. Surely your collector might send that for a few shillings by post. Dr Bennett promised to arrange with Signor d'Albertis about getting plants for me. I have reminded him of it again. When will the Italian Naturalist leave again.2

If on any occasion for a few £ any really good rare and showy zoolog objects now and then can be picked up for a continental museum,3 then pray let me know, as I would be a purchaser.

It seems a pity, that you cannot send a collector yourself to New Guinea.

Has Mr Pettard arrived in Sydney? Perhaps I can arrange to find him a companion. That is, what he requires or rather himself wishes.4

With best salutation your

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

Cycas

Euodia hortensis

Rutaceae

1
i.e. J. R. and G. Forster.
2
Luigi Maria d'Albertis returned to New Guinea in late May 1876 to undertake further exploration of the Fly River.
3
M had promised to send his zoological specimens to the Museum für Naturkunde, Stuttgart, but departed from this agreement on many occassions: see Lucas (2013a).
4
Petterd? William Petterd was a member of William Macleay's Chevert expedition, and when Macleay cancelled the planned exploration of the Fly River, he and other members formed an offshoot expedition (Fulton 2017), which itself broke up in Port Morseby, where Petterd was based with some of the original offshoot party from 29 October 1875 until 26 January 1876, when they returned to Cape York and Petterd thence to Sydney (Petterd 1876a, b; W. Petterd to C. French, 14 February 1876, Argus (Melbourne), 11 March 1876, p. 4). Petterd had expressed his ambition to spend several years exploring in New Guinea, (W. F. Petterd to T. A. Reynolds, 17 September 1875, Mercury (Hobart), 21 October 1875, p. 2).

Please cite as “FVM-76-03-24,” 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 18 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/76-03-24