To Pier Saccardo   20 June 1893

20/6/93

 

It was very gratifying to me, dear Prof. Saccardo, to received the two extraprints from the Hedwigia1 so important in this instance as it shows the connection of Mylitta australis with a Polyporus.2 This was the only case, in which this came under my notice in the 46 years of my uninterrupted stay in Australia. Prof Spencer shall receive one of the two extraprints, when he returns from England, where he is on a science-mission from here.3

By this post I send you two small parcels of Fungs. They appear all common species, which Dr Cooke must have had long ago, and they would only be of interest to your own collection for the sake of locality.

I had hoped to attend the medical Congress in Rome,4 but at this depressed financial period I could not leave my post for the several months requisite. So I shall probably never meet you or any of my Italien Science-friends personally. I have however provided some notes on the therapeutic value of Duboisia and Homeria for the Rome Meeting5

With regardful remembrance your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

I was President of the Therapeutic Section of the inter colonial medical Congress of Melbourne.6

We like Delegates for our Australian Congresses from Europe

Can I be in any way of special use to your Societa Veneto-Trentina?

 

Mylitta australis

Polyporus

 
 
1
Saccardo (1893).
2
That the 'Native bread', Mylitta australis, is a Polyporus and not a Truffle was first published by Cooke & Massee in Cooke (1892a) p. 37, and independently soon afterwards by Saccardo, who based his description on specimens collected from Western Port, Vic., by Baldwin Spencer; see McAlpine (1904).
3
Spencer was in England during most of 1893 on sabbatical leave from the University of Melbourne.
4
International Medical Congress, Rome, 29 March-5 April 1894. The meeting had been announced for September 1893 but was postponed.
5
No paper by M was published in the proceedings of the Congress.
6
Intercolonial Medical Congress of Australasia, Melbourne, January 1889; see B89.13.16.

Please cite as “FVM-93-06-20,” 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/93-06-20