From Ferdinand von Mueller to Isaac Burkill   7 Oct 1894

7/10/94.

It was very considerate of you, dear Mr Burkill, to send me the list of names of the plants according to your examination of Baron Von Huegels polynesian collections.1 But very few of the plants are kept here, as in most cases no duplicates were available. Mr Walter collected as a Companion of Baron Huegel the plants and I send a memorandum just received from him.2 As collecting could by him only on the coasts,3 the collections consisted chiefly of littoral forms of wide distribution through Polynesia and also southern Asia, just as you found them.

But B. v. H. made after Mr Walter returned to Australia a long stay in Fiji, greatly supported by Governor Gordon, and he must have collected many rareties on the higher mountains when out on his ornithologic tours. So far as I remember of4 these plants came here, nor did I ask for any; but as I have not had leisure for many years to turn my attention much to the Polynesian vegetation I may have some of B.v. H. own Fiji collections too, but do not believe so. I will see, and let you know.5

Tell me, whether I can do anything for the Cambridge bot. Garden or Herbarium or Museum specially from here. If so, it will be done, so far as it is possible for me, with the utmost pleasure.

With regardfulness your

Ferd von Mueller

List not found. Burkill (1898), read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society on 10 February 1896, lists Anatole von Hügel's specimens, lodged at the Cambridge University Herbarium, which were collected in the vicinity of Blanche Bay, New Britain, not by von Hügel but by 'his collector'. Burkill acknowledged M and the botanists at Kew for the assistance given him. See M to I. Burkill, 19 September 1893.

Not found in Burkill correspondence at Kew.

… could by him be only on the coasts?

none omitted by M?

AVH (accessed 23 April 2022) does not list any specimens at MEL collected by A. von Hügel from Fiji.

Please cite as “FVM-94-10-07,” 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 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/94-10-07