To William Thiselton-Dyer   18 January 1888

18/1/88.¹

Though am very busy, dear Mr Dyer, in finishing the "Key"² and in working for the Australian Centennial Exhibition, and will be forced to limit in 1888 my corresondence very much, so as to get through the elaboration of Papuan plants also, I must at least reply to your last letter³ as it raises quite unexpectedly a point of consideration, affecting the sending of such plants as the Ferntrees and Todeas to Kew. You remark that a superb Todea had been brought for two L ⁴ in London and that ferntrees were now so cheap there[.]⁵ Unless you refer to Todea superba from New Zealand, — all I can say is this, that at any time anywhere a market may become glutted with goods; and thus many a Merchant and Manufacturer in Britain must have been astonished and dismayed, when sometimes their goods were sold on the other side of the world at prices far below at which even the article could be produced at the factory, simply because the market became for a while overstocked. In the same manner Xanthorrhoea-resin could some time ago by over-supply in England not be sold in London for what it cost to collect it here; just now an acquaintance of mine⁶ looses heavily on a consignment of Riflebirds from North-Queensland because he sent too many at a time, and so⁷ a sudden stop of getting Ceratodus Forsteri set in, when this rare remnant of a past creation was fished up almost exterminatingly in the Burnett-River.

To return to the Todeas, all I can say is this, that during the 40 years of my uninterrupted stay in Australia I have seen or learnt of only six, the truncs of which weighed from about 3000 to 4000 [lb]. Of these you have now two at Kew.⁸ The dragging them out of the vallies of their seclusions by oxen teams and bringing them to Melbourne has cost in each instance from £14 to £20; then come the expenses of a special large case of strong wood, the clearing out expenses, commissions and freight, — really I do not know how much it finally cost each time in this expensive country, and in most cases, as this is a horticulture-matter, the expenses falling after I left the garden on my slender private-sources. It seems a pity, to discourage me in this and some other instances discourage me ⁹ to continue these mental efforts and substantial sacrifices, to advance the interests of the great horticulture-institutions of Europe by depreciating comparisons; — I feel almost satisfied, that your new Todea does (without fronds) not weigh 1000 [lb]. What are the dimensions of its stem?¹⁰ Of such weight and below that now and then one might be got without any great expense; but it would pay no one to send them at the rate mentioned by you to Europe.

Sir Joseph will tell you from personal experience, how rare Todea Africana is in Tasmania, and so is my experience all over N.E. Australia.

Dicksonia Billardierii and Alsophila australis are in some localities rather frequent, and as railways come nearer, — for a while — they may perhaps be had at a much cheaper rate than before at the sacrifice of the beauty of our forests for mere greed of exporters; but there will be soon an end to that also, simply the supply failing, and the upgrowth, as you can see at Kew, being so very slow.¹¹

It is gratifying to me, that the excellent Mr Baker proves the last Selaginella as truly new to science¹²

Alsophila australis

Dicksonia Billardierii

Selaginella

Todea Africana

Xanthorrhoea