21/4/91.
You deserve great credit, dear Mr James, for the elaboration of so splendid a work as your hand-book of Australian Horticulture.1 I will carefully read the text, which kind of litterary occupation I generally do in my retiring room at the "midnight-lamp". The gorgeous illustration of the Roses can not be surpassed by anything done in the best places of pictural art in Europe.
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller
James (1892). M evidently had received a copy of the first of twelve monthly parts of this work which was announced as received in Sydney morning herald, 17 April 1891, p. 2, and a bound volume issued by the publishers was reported as received in Sydney morning herald, 4 June 1892, p. 5. There are several engravings of roses in the first 40 pages, which comprised part 1. The library of the Royal Botanical Gardens Melbourne has two copies, one catalogued as 1891 missing some parts, and the other as 1892.
MS is a photocopy made available to the Library by Henry James's son. The whereabouts of the original letter is not known.
Please cite as “FVM-91-04-21,” 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