To Richard Owen1    1 February 1881

1/2/81

 

Allow me, dear Prof. Owen, to send to you for kind identification specimens of the insect, which produces the Melitose (or Eucalyptus Manna) on Euc. viminalis. Though much controversy about the origin of this saccharine crumblike substance has been going on for very many years, I have only this season been able by the help of an Assistant of mine2 to confirm, that it is the small insect, now forwarded, which secretes the Melitose in a liquid state assimilating and elaborating it from the sap of that particular Eucalypt.3 I doubt, whether any where in Australia the generic & the particular specific position of this little creature can be ascertained beyond doubt;4 so I proceed to you, as you are at the fountain-head of zoologic Knowledge in your grand establishment. The Melitose drops in the summer so copiously from Euc. viminalis, that it is of some interest to set questions about the [...]rial5 source of this substance at rest.6

Let me hope, honored and venerable friend, that this year may again be to you one of unimpaired health and scientific triumphs, and that providence will grant you yet many other years for your luminous career & worldly happiness.

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

Eucalyptus viminalis

1
MS annotations by Owen: Recd. from Prof. v. Mueller — a new-years gift — R. O. (1881) and (Valued Autograph of the Professor).
2
C. A. Groener?
3
Almost a year earlier M had sent Owen specimens of an insect that O. Tepper had identified as producing sugary secretions on other species of Eucalyptus near St Vincent's Gulf, SA; see M to R. Owen, 2 March 1880.
4
MS annotation: 'char. of this insect is known'.
5
illegible — obscured by binding.
6
M extensively discusses the various sources of manna in Australia in the entry for E. viminalis in B84.13.19, but makes no mention of information from Owen. See also M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 29 January 1884.

Please cite as “FVM-81-02-01,” 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/81-02-01