4/6/78.
I believe, dear Mr Ramsay, that we are both equally sorry, to have mixed ourself up with Mr Goldie.1 Our united means would have been sufficient to send a collector independent of him. He never writes, and I have no faith whatever in him. As regards any letters of mine to him, I cannot now remember, that I said anything about your collector; if I did, I certainly said nothing that could hurt him, as his own plants had to come also to me, he being merely a collector himself, and that a very illiterate one too; of course we know his vanity and quarrelsome disposition, and the former was exempliced by what never occurred in the worlds history before, that he named a river after himself!
I enclose a drawing of a leaf of the aralioceous plant with white square spots, as left me by d'Albertis.2 Perhaps that plant did survive. His great Arad with slit leaves must have been a Raphidophora Perhaps it would be best, if you kindly asked Mr Ingham J.P at Port Moresby to pick up any plants (including Algae) for me, as you are befriended with that Gentleman — The enclosed circular3 applies as well to New Guinea as to Australia. Is there no chance of my for once enjoying the privilege of a voyage in one of her Majestys Ships, as Commodore Goodenough desired so much, and as Commodore Hoskins is willing also to arrange obligingly. But the Naval Station being there not here, I lost the two brillant4 opportunities of joining Capt Moresby! My God! what chances lost! and I did not even know of the chances. Pray, my kind & generous friend, keep watch for me, when an other opportunity arises. I feel so inexpressibly unhappy here, that it will be a charity to me to take me away at least for a time. If the Library & Museum collections were all my own, I would quit the colony, but for Gods sake, mention this to no one, as an expression to that effect would prevent me to succeed in rebuilding my Department and regaining my position.
I am sorry, that unintentionally I should have been the cause of some troubles of yours with Goldie.
I have again looked for the few specimens of Rushes; but in the overcrowded only Museum room, to which has not been added for 21 years! (since 1857) things are stored away into all corners & recesses that it is not possible to keep order in the daily augmenting collections. If your trustee would only mention the names of the Rushes, I could then easily pick out of the Normal collection the specimens in a far better state than the specimens sent to me.
With regardful remembrance your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Raphidophora
Please cite as “FVM-78-06-04,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/78-06-04