3/5/90.2
In shipping for you, dear Mr Dyer, the two Zamia Dyeri,3 I found, that one was slightly rotten at the bottom of the stem. The decayed portion has been carefully removed, but it would be well, to examine the plant again carefully before it is put in soil, as it may need the charcoal-treatment.4 I presume you were and continued successful with the Macrozamia Moorei, after you submitted it to amputation.5 Write occasionally a note, how seeds and plants from here succeed, as it cheers me much,6 and as now and them a memorandum about this might be given to you by a foreman, without loss of time. Thus I do not know now, whether you have or have not the Telopea oreades growing.7 So I send seeds once more. If you have the two plants finally flowering alongside each other, you will see that T. oreades differs specifically from T. truncata;8 so the error in gen. pl. that only two Telopeas can be admitted should be corrected. 9 I am just passing the 9th part10 of the Papuan plants through the press, and the 10th will soon follow;11 indeed I trust to get through the whole of Forbes and Baeuerlens plants in the course of this year.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Can we hope for an early suppl. of the genera plantarum? Some one might be tempted to compile one from existing literature; this grand work leaves us now occasionally helpless, particularly the earlier volumes.
If you have already safely growing the first sent Macrozamia Dyeri,12 will you then put one of the present lot into your next case for Regel, as he seems to have the largest collection of Cycadeae beyond Kew.
13/5/90.
Only one case is for you,13 the two others are for the continent, but as they have all been put on one bill of lading, you will get yours through Mess. Watson & Scull.
Cycadeae
Macrozamia Dyeri
Macrozamia Moorei
Telopea oreades
Telopea truncata
Zamia Dyeri
MS black edged — M's brother-in-law George Doughty died on 26 March 1890.
Date stamped Royal Gardens Kew 18. Jun. 90. Annotated by Thiselton-Dyer: And 13.7.90 (letter not found).
Marginal annotation by W. Watson: Yes.
See 'Tenacity of life in a Cycad', Gardeners' chronicle , 9 February 1889, p. 177, which reports that a stem received on 1 June 1882 (See M to w. Thiselton-Dyer, 8 May 1882 [in this edition as 82-05-08a]) was restored to growth after being taken from its pot and the dead bottom section removed.
Please cite as “FVM-90-05-03,” 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 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/90-05-03