10/12/872
Best thanks, dear Mr Morris, for the seeds of Vaccinium Myrtillus seeds,3 which shall have every care bestowed on them in a cold frame, after sowing in healthy forest soil. But the chances of raising Vaccinium seeds are always small and particularly it is so with those of V. Myrtillus, unless taken just fresh out of the fruit, and even then it is difficult to raise and nourish seedlings. Many years ago I induced Dr and Madame Sonder, to make purposely an excursion, to secure me a living plant late in the autumn, and to pack it as dead good4 into a close box within dry sphagnum. The experiment succeeded to perfection, the plant growing anew in a cold frame here; but at that time access to the Australian alps, for planting it out there were difficult, and when the next Summer heat came on with the Sirocco, I lost the plant under glass, and had not the courage to ask Dr and Mrs Sonder to go once more to the same trouble. Now we have railways to the foot of the Alps here
Regardfully
your
Ferd von Mueller.
Vaccinium Myrtillus
Please cite as “FVM-87-12-10,” 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