14/4/801
Herewith, Sir Joseph, some seeds from Mr Alex Forrests Expedition in N.W. Australia,2 received only this day from Mr Carey.3 I also forward fresh tubers of Dipodium. Perhaps you may succeed to bring the plant in flower.4 Got this day the new part of the “opus magnum”.5 What a treasure for all times. I hope that Bentham & yourself will ere long absolve the Monocotyledoneae. Do you want supplemental notes on Dicotyl.?
What a sad and irreparable loss, that of General Munro!6 I had just posted a letter to the General,7 and sent him a critical Andropogon, when the mournful tidings of his unexpected demise reached me.
So, the bot. World has not one comprehensive Agrostologist now.
Always with friendship
your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Kindly tell me, what may have been the average contribution to the Clifford fund, so that I may forward my mite also, and if it pleases you through you.8
Andropogon
Dicotyledoneae
Dipodium
Monocotyledoneae
The postscript paragraph is written on a separate sheet, f. 267. It is treated as part of this letter on the basis that J. Hooker to M, 28 May 1880 includes a response to this question as well as comments on other parts of the letter. MS annotation by Hooker: 'Send it direct — I sent £5.5.0 I do not know others JH’.
William Kingdon Clifford died with assets of less than £450 (ODNB); a pension fund to provide for his family was opened by his friends (The Times [London], 17 March 1879, p. 6).
Please cite as “FVM-80-04-14a,” 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 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/80-04-14a