To Alphonse de Candolle   25 December 1879

Christmasday, 1879.

 

Let me express my best thanks, honored Sir, for your friendliness of sending me the important volume on Aroideae, which continues the Series of the prodromus so worthily!1

As all the countries of the world profit from such a work in an ancient universal language, could you not send a circular letter to the principal Governments of Europe and America, asking for some monetary subsidy? for which a certain number of copies might then be furnished to each state. This would expedite the work vastly, as it would then not depend on its progress solely on ordinary sale, and several volumes could then simultaneously be carried through the press. Let me hope that you receive the Eucalyptus Decades2 regularly.

What is Euc. ambigua of your immortal parent. Could I get a fragment or would the venerable and obliging DeCaisne spare a specimen, even on loan? We do not even know, whether it came from Tasmania or West Australia.

I was rejoyced to restore E. punctata D.C.to honor again! It is a well marked species, of which a lithogram will be given in the sixth decade.3

With veneration your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

Aroideae

Eucalyptus ambigua

Eucalyptus punctata

1
Engler (1879). M's conception of Aroideae was broader than Engler's. In his census list of Australian members of the Aroideae (B83.03.04, p. 120) M, following Jussieu (1789, see pp. 23-4) included genera that Engler included in other subfamiles of Areceae, for example Pothos and Gymnostachys included by Engler in Pothoideae, and Colocasia included by Engler in Colocasioideae, as well as Typhonium included by Engler in Aroideae. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7, pp.151-8, used the same concept as M.
2
The first of the Decades was published in mid-1879; see notes to the bibliography entry B79.13.11. The work concluded with Decade 10, B84.11.02.
3
Published in mid-1880; see notes to the bibliography entry B80.13.14.

Please cite as “FVM-79-12-25c,” 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 20 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/79-12-25c