To Joseph Hooker   28 May 1879

28/5/79.¹

Could you, dear Sir Joseph, not lend us your powerful aid in getting seeds of the "Coapim"² Panicum spectabile?³ You may have thought, that we had it in Australia, but I never yet saw here or elsewhere a living plant. What the Adelaide bot. Garden for several years has sent out as P. spectabile is merely the Cuba-grass, Andropogon Haleppensis,⁴ praised since Theophrastos time, i.e. nearly 2000 years, and cultivated by me since 1858. It is a good grass also, but apt to spread in cultivation like Agropyrum repens. Had I been left in my Directorship all these things could have been attended to also.

Regardfully yr

Ferd von Mueller

I wrote latterly to Dr Kirk of Zanzibar⁵ for the seeds of the P. spectabile, but he may not have it on the eastern side of Africa.

Your splendid plate of Euchlaena luxurians gives a good idea of this noble grass.⁶ I had seeds 3 years ago from Bourbon⁷ & from Paris, and two years ago it bore immensely at Muellersville, poor Thozet’s place, from whence it is gone over all the warmer parts of Australia. Here we must keep it under glass.

Agropyrum repens

Andropogon Haleppensis

Euchlaena luxurians

Panicum spectabile