To William Thiselton-Dyer   10 July 1891

 

10/7/91.1

Am sorry to hear, dear Mr Dyer, that you have been ailing. I always think, one in the zenith of life could not be seriously ill, unless by accident or epidemics. Your recreation-trip however gave you a chance of seeing more of the cultures on the mediterranean shore. It is always risky to cut nerves in facial neuralgia, and the result in the case of poor Naudin is very sad indeed; and as his intellectual vigor is still so great, he must feel his loss of hearing with unusual severity.2

If I can send any particular seeds to Mr Hanbury from here, I will do it readily.

Let me hope that the communication from the Leopoldina-Carolina, which I initiated, has been pleasing to you, especially as that is one of the four oldest science-societies, formed subsequent to ancient ages.3

I have not written to Sir Joseph on the subject of antarctic

exploration, atho’ he is the President of the antarctic Committee of the British Association[.] I have greatly exerted myself as President of the Vict branch of the R.G.S.A4 to obtain the fund for Nordenskiold's Expedition. Capt Pasco, the Presn of the antarctic Committee, will write on my request by this mail to Admiral Sir Erasmus Ommaney, the Secr of the Home Committee that the fund for the Swedish Australian Expedition is now secured, so that this can be reported in time to the meeting of the British Assoc. in 1891. We here hope, that this preliminary reconnoitering voyage will be followed up by a later large British Expedition.5 Will you kindly let Sir Joseph know. I am extra-busy in passing the 8th Edit. of the Select plants6 (again somewhat enlarged) through the press, as urgently needed already. Your honored name is often mentioned in it.

Regardfully yours

Always

Ferd von Mueller.

 

Sir Thomas Elder has invited me to visit him in Adelaide, but I can not go at present.7

It would seem, that the announcement made from America, that Boehmeria leaves can be used for silkworm-food, does not hold good, as I just learn from the proc. of the Agric & Hortic Soc. of India. May 1891 p. 178.8

 

Boehmeria

 
1
Date stamped Royal Gardens Kew 19.Aug. 9 annotated in pencil by Thiselton-Dyer:And 19/8/91 (letter not found).
2
Naudin suffered from incapacitating chronic facial neuralgia and in 1867 he underwent two operations, one involving removal of part of his jaw, that were not completely successful; see C. Naudin to C. Darwin, 29 March 1868, in Burkhardt et al. (2008), p. 343 (translation p. 927).
3
Thiselton-Dyer was elected to the Academia Caesarea Leopoldino-Carolina Naturae Curiosorum in 1887 (see list of members, http://www.leopoldina.org/en/members/members-since-1652/, accessed 29 December 2016). M is probably referring to his expectation that Dyer would receive an honorary PhD, which was awarded in September 1891 ( Morning post, 30 September 1891, p. 5).
4
Royal Geographical Society of Australasia.
5
We here hope ... large British Expedition is a note in the left margin of the MS on the back of the last folio of the letter with its position in the text indicated by asterisks.
6
B91.09.01.
7
Mueller did not visit Adelaide until January 1892, arriving on 19 January and departing on 20 January (Advertiser, 21 January 1892, p. 4 col. d.).
8

It would seem ... May 1891 p. 178. is written in the margins, on the front of the last folio of the letter).

Under the heading ‘Ramie as a food for silk worms’, the Proceedings of the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of Indiareported, in the account of the Society’s meeting on 27 May 1891, that since the original announcement in the Proceedings for September 1890, trials by the Society had not succeeded. The article quoted the United States Department of Agriculture publication Insect Life of March 1891: ‘There is much reason to believe that the statement was one of those meaningless inventions, which so frequently find their way into the columns of American newspapers, and which have not even the merit of wit to give them a point’. However, the sentence M inserted in the updated entry for Boehmeria nivea as a fibre plant in B81.09.01, p 72 was not removed before publication: ‘Also the leaves are useful, as they serve as food for silkworms [W. T. Dyer]’. The sentence also appears in the next edition, B95.08.04, p. 79. M’s statement came from the Kew bulletin of miscellaneous information edited by Thiselton-Dyer. It quoted a letter from the British Consul at New Orleans that reported that a lady in South Carolina had succeeded in rearing silkworms on the foliage of Boehmeria nivea(1890: 174- 175).

Please cite as “FVM-91-07-10a,” 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 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/91-07-10a