To William Thiselton-Dyer   3 January 1893

3/1/93

 

I had induced my Assistant, dear Dr Dyer, to ascend during these holidays Mt Baw Baw, first scaled by me (1860) the only place except one other Mount close bye where the subalpine Wittsteinia vacciniacea grows.1 He just brought living plants; so I send some few at once to you, and along with it Coprosma pumila J. Hooker, — trusting that they will endure in the Agar-case (moss-packed) the few weeks passage to you. The plant is sub alpine and would require cold-house-culture, in humus-soil. It likes humid cool forest places here in the highlands, also wet fissures of rocks. When once it may reach you, the culture and subsequent multiplication from roots would be most easy.

I sent berries repeatedly, but the seeds seem never to have germinated.2 So far, as I know, the plant is new for European culture.3 As a wondrous rarity it is a counterpart to Orphanidesia.

Always with best attachment

Your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

Coprosma pumila

Orphanidesia

Wittsteinia vacciniacea

 
1
See M to R. Heales, 10 January 1861.
2
M had early attempted to send living plants to Kew (M to W. Hooker, 25 June 1861) and to Edinburgh (M to J. Balfour, 28 March 1869 [in this edition as 69-03-28b] and M to J. Hooker, January 1871).
3
The Bulletin has this sentence as ' So far as I know the plant is new for European culture.'

Please cite as “FVM-93-01-03a,” 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 24 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/93-01-03a