Easter 1884.1
Herewith, dear Mr Dyer, the fresh seeds of Byblis gigantea,2 one of the grandest of droseraceous plants and one of the most glittering. It is a magnificent floral object, just as if studded all over with diamonds. Try it in pure sand wet, also in sand with some admixture of turf.
The seed is not readily got. It is a splendid plant to experiment on as regards assimilation of fleshy substances3 [...] and feverish4
Byblis gigantea
Easter day 1884 was 13 April.
There is a small cross adjacent to 'gigantea'.
See Darwin (1875), pp. 343-4.
The rest of the letter has not been found. ‘Portion of letter’ is written in red pencil in an unknown hand in the space between 'substances' and 'and feverish.' A diagonal line after 'and feverish' indicates that it is interlined and intended for the line below, which except for the partial ascenders of some letters, is missing.
The file entry is number 219 for 1884, dated May 19. The item is pasted on to the page under the heading ‘Melbourne B.G. | Fred. (sic) von Mueller’. This is not the only instance of a note pasted into the books, but the usual form was a brief list of the plants or seeds received with their source, date of arrival and an entry number. M was not at this period associated with the Melbourne Botanic Garden.
Please cite as “FVM-84-04-13,” 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