Botanic Gardens
Brisbane 23rd Jany 1883
Baron Ferd. von Mueller K.C.M.G. &c
Melbourne
Dear Sir,
Allow me to thank your for your letter of the 15th inst.1 together with the printed matter enclosed. By to-day's mail I have sent you a small box containing two flowers of Nelumbium Leichhardti,2 & a small fruit-bearing branchlet of the Ficus from Trinity Bay. There is no further variation in the leaves beyond that on the branch sent. It forms a very handsome umbrageous tree of semi-drooping habit, & for beauty of habit & foliage will form a rival to Ficus Benjaminia.3 It is perfectly distinct from all other kinds of Figs we have growing here. The propagator tells me the young plants were sent here by a Surveyor from Trinity Bay, they were kept in pots for some time, when two were planted out in the Gardens, & are now about fifteen (15) feet high. Two years ago I had a bed trenched for one, which is now making splendid growth & gradually developing into a very beautiful tree, & Mr Bailey & myself think it to be the handsomest variety of the kind we have.
Allow me to thank you my dear Baron for the compliment you have paid me in proposing to name it after me4
Yours faithfully
James Pink
Nelumbium Leichhardti
Ficus Benjaminia
Please cite as “FVM-83-01-23,” 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/83-01-23