19/2/89
I had written a letter to you, dear Mr Barnard, to excuse my absense at the Deputation to day, as I am not quite well; but the letter, instead of being given to you at the Lands-Office went to Kew; so I write again to be in time.
I would not advise, to ask for large areas in Wilson's promontory, to be reserved, because the revenue would suffer. More over it is such a mild climate there, that many products, not hardy in Victoria, except in frostless places, could be reared there, the equable humidity being also advantageous for tillage there. Already 1854 I recognized at Sealers cove the importance of many parts of Wilson's promontory for forest-purposes, and as early as 1853 I found a cattle-station to exist on the Western side of the peninsula. As regards reservations in the most easterly region of Gippsland, they might include not only the two patches, where the Fan-palm grows, but also those places where the Waratah occurs most luxuriantly and particularly the spots, where it attains 50 feet in hight, also the particular locality, where the rare slender fern-tree, Alsophila Cunninghami1 occurs. But unless the stringenst2 measures be adopted against the forest- and bush-fires, these noble but slow growing plants might still be swept out of existence. The Patch of ground, on which the Fan-palm grows near the Brodribb-River, was reserved on a suggestion of mine very many years3; but the other patch became only known recently. As regards the earliest discovery of the Livistona australis in Victoria, I may remark, that since our last meeting of the F. N. Club,4 I had an unexpected visit of the youngest brother of the Mess. McLeod, who told me, when I asked, that his eldest brother Norman (dead since some years,) Mr Brodribb5 and an other Pioneer-Squatter came suddenly on the so called Cabbage-palm a few years prior to my pushing to the spot in 1854, when McCleods small outstation was deserted. The early party took no special notice of the presense of the Livistona-Palm, as they were in search for pasture-country only, and could in those early days not even know, whether this Palm did extend to Wilson's Promontory or even the Cape Otway Ranges.
Thus, at all events, I was the first, 35 years ago, under the danger of attacks from then murderous natives, to render known publicly the existence of this Fan-palm so far south, and to identify the genus and species.
The Victorian Waratah I discovered only 1860 on the table-land near the sources of the Genoa,6 at an elevation of about 4000 feet. As the main-portion of East-Gippsland became only traversed within the last few years, the Waratah also was only recently traced over its areas, but many of the vallies, into which it probably penetrates, are never yet trodden by civilized man.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Alsophila Cunninghami
Livistona australis
Alsophila cunninghamii?
strongest? M wrote 'stringest' but then modified the spelling, seemingly over-hastily.
ago omitted?
Field Naturalists' Club [of Victoria].
W. A. Brodribb? (E. Bird, ‘Place names on the coast of Victoria', https://www.webcitation.org/5wNhWF4B7, accessed 19 April 2020).
Genoa River, east Gippsland, Vic.
Please cite as “FVM-89-02-19a,” 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