[THE curator of the Castlemaine Botanical-gardens is in receipt of several packets of grape seeds from Baron Von Mueller, of Melbourne, which are said to resist the ravages of phylloxera.]
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'COUNTRY NEWS. CASTLEMAINE', Argus, 14 February 1894. p. 6, in an item dated 'Tuesday Evening' [i.e. 13 February]. It is dated on the assumption that the curator would have told the correspondent of the consignment as soon as received, and the latest likely date of despatch would be 12 February. NB. Avoca mail, 13 February 1894, p, 2, col. d, has a similar item, but it states: 'The curator of the Castlemaine botanical gardens has produced, from a quantity of seed sent to him by Baron von Mueller, a large number of healthy American wild grape vine plants, which are said to resist the attacks of phylloxera'. It is not clear which of the reports is correct. If the consignment of economic seeds reported earlier to the Castlemaine Borough Council (see M to P. Doran, 3 October 1893) included seeds of American vines, and they were planted immediately, then the Avoca mail may be correct with the Argus report involving a misunderstanding.
Please cite as “FVM-94-02-12,” 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