6/7/881
By this post, dear Mr Dyer, you will receive a parcel of ferns, collected during his last travels in S. E. New Guinea by poor Mr C Hartmann, who succumbed to fever in that terrible clime.2 This sad occurrence accounts for the imperfect state of the collection; but it is nearly half of all; the other portion I sent to Mr Carruthers, who is now working on Mr Forbes's ferns.3 As you meet Mr Carruthers often you can of course arrange with him about the naming. Absolute novelty seems hardly among these ferns, unless one Alsophila. My retaining nothing here, shows my disinterestedness; but I asked Mr C., to send me back a little of any rare or new species.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Very busy for Exhibition now.4
Alsophila
Date stamped: Royal Gardens Kew 11. Aug. 88. Annotation by [Thiselton-Dyer ?]: And with list 14.8.88 (letter not found).
Carl Hartmann died in Brisbane on 14 December 1887 (Queenslander, 17 December 1887, p. 965).
The ferns collected by Henry Forbes in British New Guinea in 1885-86.
Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888-9.
Please cite as “FVM-88-07-06,” 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