Cambewarra, Shoalhaven, New South Wales,
Feb. 8th 1890.
Honoured Sir,
I take the liberty of forwarding you a small parcel containing the leaves, fruit and bark of a tree that is very scarce here. This tree does not produce fruit very often; I have been watching for it ever since I became acquainted with Mr Baurlen;1 the tree is not know2 by him. I have had better specimens of the bark in my possession than those I now send you; the largest specimen, I have had for years beside me; the small one was gathered yesterday. I have manufactured some fair specimens of corks from the bark, with an old razor blade; when it can be had large enough it makes very good floats for fishing nets.
Accept my best thanks for the copy of your work on "Select Extra-Tropical Plants."3 I have read it twice over — it is one of the most readable books I ever perused. When the present ignorant money-grubling generation have dissolved into their primitive mud, and a more enlightened race inhabits Australia, your works will come to the front — and remain there.
I enclose a cutting4 by the Rev. David Landsborough, of Kilmarnock Scotland, they seem to be doing their best to naturalise the eucalypts in Scotland.
I remain, yours respectfully
Thomas Weir.
The Baron Von Mueller.
Melbourne.
Please cite as “FVM-90-02-08,” 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