To Joseph Hooker   18 January 1877

18/1/77.

 

I am eager to ask you, dear Dr Hooker, whether you could conveniently send me a glass-case with Elymus arenarius & Psamma arenaria roots, put into the proper sea-sand. The reason why I ask is this. I induced the Government of this colony to import two consignments of seeds of these Grasses in considerable quantity.1 These have been sown, but I fear without result.2 I had the seeds separately tested at a nurseryman's place, but they did not germinate; so I must suppose, that they had lost their power of vitality before coming here, or were too old or not sufficiently ripened. I took the precaution to advise, that you should be solicited to procure & select the seeds, but perhaps you were never consulted. Altho' the expense has not been great (under £50), yet here are so many eager to find fault with me in anything I may do or not do, that I like to be able to show anyhow the 2 plant, above mentioned, even if I was driven to the extremity to propagate them on our sands by division of root, if once the living plants were obtained. When I sent for these seeds, I ordered also those of Lupinus arboreus & L. albifrons, to try with these perennial species the Californian method. Also in this I am failed, for an enormous lot of annual Lupin seeds were sent!3

If you can help me with your usual goodness, then please send to me direct, not to the bot. Garden, (or rather bot. Cremorne) the new consignment.

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller

Elymus arenarius

Psamma arenaria

Lupinus arboreus

Lupinus albifrons

 
1
See M to E. Symonds, 9 February 1876. On 28 April 1876 [S.] Yardley, Secretary to the Agent General for Victoria, wrote to Hooker asking for possible sources of seeds of Psamma arenaria, Elymus arenarius, Lupinus arboreus, and Lupinus albiflorus [no such species listed in IPNI: error for L. albifrons?] (RBG Kew, Miscellaneous reports 7.7. Victoria, miscellaneous 1861-1916, f. 230). See Heathcote & Maroske (1996).
2
See e.g. M to F. Mandeville, February 1877.
3
Presumably because Thiselton-Dyer and the Agent General interpreted the erroneous L. albiflorus as meaning L. albus.

Please cite as “FVM-77-01-18a,” 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 23 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/77-01-18a