I had a specimen brought on board the Merrie England,1 where I invited Mr. W. Fitzgerald to study it. He undertook to send you his description of it.2 I enclose a sketch of the fruit by Mr. Winter.3 The bunch of fruits would have weighed nearly 1 cwt.4 It is not edible. The seeds are used for making beads. It is a fine handsome plant.5
Steam yacht in the service of the Governor of British New Guinea.
See W. Fitzgerald to M, 7 February 1896.
The sketch is at Kew, where it is attached to the sheet K292260, along with seeds. The label with the seeds is 'Musa calosperma Seeds. New Guinea Comm. Sir F. von Mueller Sept 1896.' The sketch is headed 'Musa calosperma. Sketched by Mr Winter 1895', and annotated 'ackd to Dr. Masters, Nov 13/96'. M had sent the sketch to Masters at the Gardeners' chronicle, where it arrived on 12 October, after the news of his death was received. The sketch was published 'not only for its own sake, but in memoriam' (Gardeners' chronicle, 17 October 1896, p. 466). The sketch is at p. 467: 96-02-07_image01.jpg
hundredweight (= 112 lb).
The species concerned is Musa calosperma, 'temporarily named' by M in B85.12.08, p. 356. See also N. Miklouho-Maclay to M, 4 September 1885.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Remarks on a wild Banana of New Guinea', Victorian naturalist. vol. 13 (1896), p. 53 (B96.08.01). The quotation is introduced by: 'Towards the end of last year Sir William Macgregor saw, 35 miles up the Mambare-River [Papua], this same Musa. in reference to this his Excellency writes me under date 15th December, 1895'.
Please cite as “FVM-95-12-15a,” 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