22/10/81.
I feel much pleasure, dear Mr Ramsay, to be one of your sponsors at the RGS.1 Since Sir Samuel Wilson & the Rev. J. Tenison-Woods left, I do not remember any other FRGS., Giles & Tietkens being in Adelaide. If you ask the Rev. Mr Brown, he is is2 sure to feel honored in supporting your candidature; he is in Sydney now.
Dr von Haast in Christchurch would also be near to you. As regards the supposed Ptychosperma, I can only say that the structure of the fruit brings it in that genus, and that curiously enough in all the fruits dissected by me only one seed was contained. But nothing can be said of a palm genus without flowers & leaves.
I will try, to get something ready for your L.S.,3 but am just now otherwise hard-pressed!
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller.
I hope your collector will dry all sorts of plants in flower & fruit, when in the Solomon-Islands! Please direct his attention particularly also to good material of Cycas & Pandanus, two genera much neglected by collectors.
The little Orchid from the Wellington-Caves is a small form of Caladenia carnea with the lateral lobes of the labellum as long as the middle one. I do not admit species on such grounds; it is legitimately only a variety. Confidentially I might add, that in his splendid figures Mr Fitzgerald4 has too many species.
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller.
Mr Moore signed Dr Landau's paper for the L.S.;5 I am sorry he acted foolishly while there, but was well recommended to me by three Berlin Professors.
Caladenia carnea
Cycas
Pandanus
Ptychosperma
Royal Geographical Society. The MS is also accompanied by a printed 'Certificate of Candidate for Election' of the Royal Geographical Society, with Ramsay's name, qualifications and position filled in by M, who has signed the certificate and dated it '22 October 1881'.
The blank spaces on the certificate for additional signatures are not filled in, and it was clearly not submitted. M had previously asked Richard Owen to support Ramsay's candidature but Owen, not being a Fellow, could not do so and the nomination was not formally made to the RGS (M to R. Owen, 21 July 1880).
Ramsay was eventually elected on 10 December 1883, on the basis of a certificate signed by three British-based members of the Society, Howard Saunders, H. G. Seeley and Edward Harris.
Please cite as “FVM-81-10-22,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/81-10-22