To Edward Ramsay   1 June 1889

1/6/89

 

Let me accompany my official letter of thanks,1 dear Dr Ramsay, with a few private lines, as I ought anyhow to have written to you long ago. But 1887 & 1888 and also up to now 1889 brought me such a heavy amount of extra-work through the issue of the "Key"2 the new edit. of the Select plants,3 the Acacia-Atlas4 the Centennial and Paris-Exhibition, the medical Congress, and now the preparation for the Austral Association,5 that I almost broke down. But I am now particularly eager, to invoke also your valuable aid for the Melbourne Meeting of the Austral. Associat.,6 particularly in the biologic Section for which our illustrious friend Sir W. M'Leay has kindly accepted the Presidency.7 We hope, to take Members with their Ladies to the Austral Alps right up to the Glaciers, as the railway will by the end of the year be ready to Bright.8

As likely in course of time this splendid public. of the Fauna, Geology &c of Lord Howe's Island,9 will need a supplement, a good opportunity would then also arise, to publish a list of the plants, which I could easily furnish.

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

The shrub or tree of Lord Howe's Isl with leaves like Griseline or Corynoocarpus became never yet described for want of flowers and fruits.

No more about the Claudea?10

 

Claudea

Corynoocarpus

 
1
Letter not found.
2
B88.11.02.
3
B88.12.01.
4
B88.13.01.
5
Centennial Internation Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888-89; Exposition universelle, Paris, 1889; Intercolonial Medical Congress Melbourne, January 1889, for which M served as President of the Therapeutics Section; Second Congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, Melbourne, January 1890, over which M presided.
6
Ramsey was appointed a member of the Association's 'Protection of native birds and mammals committee' and 'Improvement of museums as a means of popular education committee', but was not listed as a member of the Melbourne Congress and did not present a paper to Section D, Biology (Spencer [1890], pp. xx, xxi).
7
Professor A. P. Thomas, not William Macleay, presided over Section D, Biology, at the Melbourne meeting (Spencer [1890]. p. xv).
8
Vic.
9
Etheridge (1889); this appears to be the item that M is thanking Ramsay for in the opening of this letter.
10
M had been pressing Ramsay to collect specimens of this seaweed that included fruiting bodies since 1882, see M to E. Ramsay 22 September 1882 (in this edition as 82-09-22c).

Please cite as “FVM-89-06-01,” 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 9 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/89-06-01