To James Stirling   9 July 1891

Thursday [9 July 1891].1

 

It is with much regret, dear Mr Stirling, that I feel discapacitated from attending at your lecture, as my bronchial catarrh is much aggravated and it would thus not be safe for me to go into the cold night air. May I beg therefore of you, to excuse my absense particularly to the honorable the Minister of the Mines-Department2 under these circumstances, while you will be aware, that I would gladly come, if I was well. As regards the constituents of the Victorian Coal, perhaps you will kindly mention to the meeting, that I will be especially glad, to afford any aid in the biologic elucidation of their contents, so far as they are bearing on the existing forms of plant-life in the present creation. The eighth edition of the volume on “Select plants for industrial culture and naturalisation”3 will be through the press by the end of this month, when for the comprehensive study of coal-fossils, such as would more particularly come within my reach, I could devote the needful time.4

Regardfully your

Ferd von Mueller.

 
1
editorial addition. Stirling delivered a lecture at the Melbourne Athenaeum on Thursday 9 July 1891 ‘on the subject of Victorian coal resources’, with the Minister for Mines in the chair (Argus, 10 July 1891, p. 6).
2
Alfred Outtrim, who played a major part in the development of coal mining in south Gippsland.
3
B91.13.10.
4
No publication by M on this subject is known.

Please cite as “FVM-91-07-09a,” 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/91-07-09a