Government Botanist's Office,
Melbourne, Jan. 31st, 1894.
Dear Sir, — In reply to your kind letter of the 29th,1 let me say, dear Mr Alderdice, that various Araucarias have borne fruits in this colony, I having myself distributed seeds or seedlings from 1858 till 1873 of these kinds of pine, also of many other sorts including the Wellingtonia. The fruiting of Araucaria imbricata in your elevation so early is not very surprising, as the clime there would be conducive to a vigorous growth of the Araucaria, which likes a cooler temperature than the other species. As regards the earliest time when Araucaria imbricata fruited in this colony, that could be easiest ascertained by a query through one of the leading weekly periodicals.
Spontaneous information such as you thoughtfully and circumspectly afford on this occasion, I have found only exceptionally forthcoming from any of the numerous recipients to whom I gave plants or seeds during the last forty years. I imported from Chili direct a considerable quantity of well-germinating seeds of Araucaria imbricata at the end of the fiftieth year of this century,2 and many of the trees from that lot must have been in bearing already.
Regardfully yours
FERD. VON MUELLER.
P.S. — Do you know of anyone who would gather, press and dry specimens of any floating or submerged plants from your rivers and lagoons?3 Such could best be drawn out by long-handled rakes. I would send seeds of economic plants as a return gift.4
F. M.
Araucaria imbricata
Wellingtonia
Letter not found. In his covering letter to the newspaper, Alderdice wrote: 'Observing a few weeks ago that the Araucarias and Wellingtonias in the Town Hall gardens were putting forth cones, and being under the impression that it was unusual for them to bear fruit in Victoria and at so early a stage (18 years) of their growth, I wrote to Baron Ferd. Von Mueller on the matter, giving details of their height, situation, &c. The Baron courteously replied in the following letter…'.
At that time M would have been in South Australia; no contemporary evidence of such an import by M to SA has been found. However, M to J. O'Shanassy, 1 April 1858, shows that M was in contact at that date with Professor Philippi of Santiago, Chile, and in the following year he sent a case with Araucarias to W. Hooker and a case of living plants to the botanic Garden in Santiago (M to J. O'Shanassy, October 1959 (in this edition as 59.10.00b)), the latter presumably a reciprocal exchange. It is therefore probable that 'fiftieth year' is an error.
M made many similar requests: see, for example, M to C. Musson, 27 January 1890.
In his covering letter, Alderdice wrote: 'With regard to the submerged and floating plants referred to in the letter I will be pleased should any of my friends residing along the rivers furnish me with specimens, which 1 will forward to the Baron, who offers in return therefor seeds of new economic plants, useful for cultivation. Enclosed with his letter he sends me a few seeds of the following, viz.:— white French sugar beet, very rich; VilImorins, white improved sugar beet; and polygonum sacchalineuse, [typesetter's error for sachalinense?] a new Japanese fodder plant.'
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Araucarias and Wellingtonias bearing fruit', Ovens and Murray advertiser (Beechworth), 3 February 1894, p. [9]. It was supplied to the newspaper by Alderdice.
Please cite as “FVM-94-01-31a,” 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