From St Eloy D'Alton1    25 August 1894

Nhill2

August 25th/94

My Dear Baron

Accept my grateful thanks for the seeds you so kindly sent me. I shall distribute them amongst those who take an interest in economic plants. I am sending under separate cover two specimens, one of an acacia rather rare in this part and the other a Cryptandra I presume, which is only to be met with in one locality in this district It grows 4 and 5 feet high, and the leaves are not the same shape as the others I have collected here and at the Grampians I regret to have to inform you that one of my dear sisters died a few weeks ago at their place Glenbower in the Grampians. Her loss leaves a very great void in my heart as she was my favorite sister being more a mother than a sister to me when I was a boy. Her illness was very brief being heart disease contracted in recent years of which none of the family was aware She does not seem to have known her self what was the matter. However it seems that the disease is in the family, as she makes the third who went off suddenly from the same cause.

With kind regards

Yours faithfully

St Eloy D'Alton

 

P.S. Would like to hear something about the Horn expedition to the McDonald Ranges.3

 

Acacia

Cryptandra

1
MS black-edged.
2
Vic.
3
A scientific expedition to the Macdonnell Ranges in Central Australia, sponsored by the mining magnate and pastoralist W. A. Horn, was in the field from May until August 1894.

Please cite as “FVM-94-08-25,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/94-08-25