10/7/76
Herewith, dear Mr Ramsay, fresh seeds of the best Cinchona, the red one, so rich in Quinin. The plant ought to become important for your sheltered fernglens.
Did you or your brother ever see a true Bamboo in the N.1 Of course I do not mean the Phragmites, the common cosmopolitan species, which dies down every year
We want all these Gramineae timely for vol. VII.2 Is still any one of your horticultural establishment3 in the North? Remember that whoever is there has a rare chance, the best yet in Australia, to distinguish himself by collecting (there may be any day competition from abroad)4 carefully all the jungle plants in flower — & fruit — specimens, particularly those of trees. I feel somewhat disappointed, that after several years of writing not a single one of my N. Correspondents has managed to send me a bundle of real good or rare specimens, when the finder would earn lasting merit from very little toil.
Regardfully
Ferd von Mueller
Cinchona
Gramineae
Phragmites
Ramsay had spent some time in the 1860s in the Clarence River and Richmond River districts of northern NSW, and in working a sugar plantation near Maryborough, Qld. In the latter venture he was accompanied by his younger brother Percy (b. 1848).
i.e. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7.
The Ramsay family's Dobroyd plant and seed nursery, Ashfield, NSW.
there may be any day competition from abroad is a marginal insertion by M: parentheses have been added for clarity.
Please cite as “FVM-76-07-10,” 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