Botanic Road Adelaide
May 9th 1876
My dear Baron
I send herewith a complete plant It is a tolerably typical specimen. Luxurious plants are sometimes 3 or 4 times wider and a foot taller but this shows the habit pretty well. It is called stink weed1 here why I dont know as the smell is strong but not disagreeable I cant say where it came from, but it is spreading all over the cultivated lands, and imparts its own odour to the atmosphere in places where it is abundant. Till lately my own impression has been that it is indigenous. The florets of the ray and disk are distinctly and pronouncedly yellow. The anthers have tails, which I observed under the microscope after carefully dissecting a tubular floret. I have remarked it in the vicinity of Adelaide for at least the last 4 years.
Very truly Yours
Alex S Paterson
Many thanks for your enclosures.2 Before sending the list of plants to the Surveyor General I took the liberty of copying it which I trust you will not disapprove. I may say that Mr Goyder is away in Tasmania at present I know Dr Davies and will take an early opportunity of urging him to fulfil his promise to obtain for you one of the 16 sets of Schultz's Port Darwin plants so far as the 3d sending is concerned. I am truly sorry to learn that no improvement has as yet taken place in your position
ASP
Please cite as “FVM-76-05-09a,” 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 March 2023, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/76-05-09a