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COilKESPONDENCE.
Death of Dr. Metier.
I beg to send you a brief account of the death of Dr. Meller (Dh-ector of
the Botanical Gardens at the Mauritius), so that you may give a compiled
notice in the ' Journal of Botany,' if you think it will be pi'oper.
Dr. Charles James Meller (M.D., and Member of the Eoyal College of
Surgeons of England, 1857), died at Allington House, Berrima, New South
Wales, on the 26th of February, 1869, aged thirty-three years. He died from
general debility, the result of frequent attacks of fever, first contracted when
in Africa witli Dr. Livuigstone, and also in Madagascar. He arrived in Decem-
ber at Sydney from the Mauritius vid Melbourne, having been sent by the
Government of that island to collect different varieties of the Sugar-Cane, and
was proceeding to Queensland, and also to some of the Paciflc Islands, etc., for
the furtherance of that object. He visited Queensland, unfortunately at the
hottest season of tlie year, and after collecting and forwarding a large quantity
of Sugar-Canes to the Mauritius (via Sydney), he was taken ill with a renewal
of his old fever, and with some difficulty was moved to Sydney, where he arrived
in a seriously debilitated state. I was requested to see him, and regularly
attended to hira during his stay in Sydney. The season being sultry, it was
thought advisable to remove him io a cooler part of the country, an arrangement
in which he also concurred ; Berrima was fixed upon, having a cool moun-
tain air, rather more than 2000 feet above the level of the sea, and distant
83 miles from Sydney, and, moreover, easily reached by railroad,— a gi-eat advantage
to an invalid. He did not, however, derive the expected benefit from
the change ;
although the evenings were to cold as to require a fire, his appetite
did not at all improve, and consequently the debility increased ; he gradually
sank and died, on the 26th of February, in the full possession of his senses.
He was attended to by liis sister (Miss Meller), who accompanied him from
tlie Mauritius, and who has since left for England [via Mauritius) the early
part of this month. Geoege Bennett.
Si/dney, March 25th, 1869.
Importation of American Seeds to Australia.
In my attempts to obtain acorns of American Oaks and nuts of the American
Hickory-trees in a state of vitality, for raising these noble trees here in our
southern latitudes, various modes of packing were adopted. You may be in-
terested in the result, as many cidtivators would gladly secui'e the seeds of
these valuable trees for distant localities. Packing in dry sand succeeded
always best ; for not only the seeds of the American species oiJuglans, Quercus,
and Carya came thus safely a voyage of fully three months, but in a similar
manner I secured Assam Tea seeds fit for germination, (he seeds being more