12/7/81
If all goes right, dear Sir Joseph, you will get by one of the next Steamers a Ward’s case with the three sp. of blue-flowering Andersonias from K.G. Sound. It would seem, that none of them got ever to Europe, though I had them in the Melbourne bot. Garden’s Green houses formerly. Mr Webb of Albany will send these remarkable plants at my expense, as I still am eager to take some little share in the introduction of new plants into Europe and also into Australia. If all goes right, the 3 species will be in bloom when they arrive, & I should like very much that they be featured as the only Epacrids with blue corollas at once; for you might loose them; at all events they might not flower well with you next year. Of course, you could insert one plate in each of the three following numbers of the Magazine. I feel sure, you will do that for me, especially as this sending involves much trouble and expense to me, and as I like to keep my name before the horticultural world, “in spe”2 of better times also for me.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller
It seems that hitherto only one species of the genus Andersonia was figured anywhere
If the Ward’s case at all is returned, it ought to go to me direct, so any return sendings for seeds from me.
I came across your letter printed here in 1876,3 but unfortunately the Phylloxera was here already then, being brought in ignorance of the Danger by a Swiss [V]ine4 planter when returning from a visit home. we try to eradicate the pest by uprooting the vines, and bisulphide of Carbon is tried, but I fear we must introduce American Vines for stock to graft on.5
Andersonia
Annotation: Sept 27th case arrived every plant — utterly dead of [course] Such plants cannot stand transport in a Ward case [illegible initials] Dr Mueller Informed same day.
The entry in the Kew Inwards Book, 1878-1883, p. 332, 29 September 1881 (RBG Kew Kewensia) records: Baron Mueller | Wardian case | Several roots of grass-like plant in doubtful condition | Various species of Epacrideae ?Styphelia | all quite dead and rotten.
In J. Hooker to M, 25 September 1881, M was told that the plants arrived dead. The dates on the annotation and in the entry book given above are therefore not the dates the plants arrived, but the date the entries were made.
See alsoM to [J. Hooker], 30 December 1881.
Please cite as “FVM-81-07-12a,” 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 30 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/81-07-12a