Melbourne, 10/10/78
Dear Dr Hector
I have to dictate this letter for you from my sickbed, but I wish to acknowledge at once the receipt of volume VIII of the New Zealand Institute which arrived today. This will make my series of this important publication of yours now complete.1 I am also under deep obligations to you for transmitting the sections of the Fernstems, which also have recently arrived. Could Mr Buchanan2 kindly send to me a specimen of your N. Zealand Zannichellia or Lepilaena?3 I believe you have both genera there, as I recently found the genuine Zannichellia in Lake King of Gippsland, where it grows in company with Vallisneria.
What kind of book will be the one which your Government intends to issue on industrial plants? and who will be the author? If there is anything that I can send from here, pray command my services.
With kind regards
Yours
Ferd. von Mueller
Lepilaena
Vallisneria
Zannichellia palustris
See M to J. Hector, 1 August (in this edition as 78-08-01a) and M to J. Hector, 5 August 1878 (in this edition as 78-08-05b).
John Buchanan (1819-1898).
See M to J. Buchanan, 30 August 1878. Could … Lepilaena is underlined and annotated in the margin: 'Parcel sent on 29/10/78'.
MS written by G. Luehmann and signed by M. Letter registered at the Geological Survey Office, Wellington, on 26 October 1878.
Please cite as “FVM-78-10-10a,” 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