25/10/83.
To day, dear Prof. Tate, your young friend, Mr Newman, whose grandfather and parent I knew,1 brought kindly the parcel of plants from you. Being still by my cough confined to within the walls of the rooms here, I could show the young Gentleman no further or special attention; he is a polite and clever youth.
Nearly all the plants were named with exactitude by you; so you need little help from me.
The few critical species want careful connected study; if we cannot at once get the time for that, let us not retard other publications on that account. Additions will always have to be made; so it does not matter much, whether they are made earlier or later.
A main point for both of us is, to keep our health, and not to overtax our working power.
"Rome was not built in one day".
If anything is ready for the press, let it be passed through, before others step in perhaps.
The Census of S.A. plants,2 as marked by you, gives me an exact idea, what you still require. I will attend to this, so soon as I can; but I may have to go for a week or two to the sea-air, on account of my bronchial catarrh. Then also just the large Sonderian collection has arrived3 – 38 boxes, which I shall have to commence unpacking and to some extent sorting next week, and that will take some time. So let the critical species stand over, til we both breath a little freer! The trip to Kang. Isl. will do you some good in health.4
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Any marked novelty can be worked at once.
The spring in Kang Island will be late this year.
Have you any positive observation of the Melitose from Euc. viminalis by Cicadeous insects?
Eucalyptus viminalis
Please cite as “FVM-83-10-25a,” 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 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/83-10-25a