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RBG Kew, Directors' letters, vol. LXXIV, Australia letters 1851-8, letter no. 165. 57.07.15

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Hooker, 1857-07-15. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/57-07-15>, accessed November 10, 2024

Melbourne bot. Garden 15. July 1857
My dear Sir William
Your very kind letter
1
Letter not found.
was joyfully recieved this evening, being forwarded from Sydney by His Excellency Sir William Denison. Not hearing from you by the last mail, I was until the Sydney Steamer arrived in some anxiety, fearing you might be not in all that good health, which your numerous friends wish you may long enjoy. It relieves my mind also, that you coincide in my view, to delay yet a little my journey to Europe, which I hope to perform (as stated before) in the summer of 1859. — His Excellency Governor Sir Henry Barkly visited our garden a few days ago, and enquired anxiously about tidings from you; I have therefore forwarded to him your letter for perusal. All colonists sympathise in the loss of his lady; he looked pale and careworn.
2
Barkly's first wife, Elizabeth Timins, died on 17 April 1857.
He is an excellent man, mild clever and obliging, and universally beloved. —
I have to thank you, Sir William, and Drs Hooker and Harvey for going to the trouble of choosing those books for me, which I require for the prosecution of my labours. I am indeed sorry giving you such endless trouble. My private library has nicely increased of late, having recieved many fine works partially through houses here and partially through Dr Sonders meditation
3
mediation?
and as I am getting the Linnaea and your journal regularly, I can watch well the progress of bot. literature and obtain what I require.
It is a great encouragement, that you propose to publish some of the more interesting of my botanical pages, and I shall endeavour always to keep a good supply of msc. [up] and his Excellency will regularly forward my papers to you with the Gov mail. Thus I send a dissertation on
Goodenovideae

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4
Goodenovieae? W. Hooker did not publish the treatment of the Goodeniaceae, but B59.04.04 contains a major discussion of the family.
and notes on new Tasmanian plants with the last mail. Poor Stuart, who has been (unknown to me at the time) lately in much misery forced his way at last to Mount Laperouse, and you will have seen, if my letters duely arrived that he discovered
Donatia Novae Zealandiae

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,
Sieversia semifolia

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n. sp.,
5
Presumably the plant described as Geum (Sieversia) renifolium in B57.10.01.
Trineuron scapigerum

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n.sp.,
Senecio papillosus

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n.sp. S. primulifolius n.sp., and some other curious plants on Mount Laperouse.
6
B57.10.01; see also footnotes M to W. Hooker, 11 June 1857 (in this edition as 57-06-11a).
This time I can add to the list
Fagus fusca

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J Hook! (as far as the remnant of fruit permit me to judge) and an Astelia with a long style which may be called stylosa closely allied to A. Solandri; further the var. [of] albida DC of
Helichrysum brachteatum

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in a wild state from Recherche Bay and
Ozothamnus turbinatus

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DC (quite identical with my Gipps Land plant) from South Port. I have forwarded specimens of these and many other rare plants partially collected by Mr Wilhelmi and partially by Stuart lately by the "Norfolk" and beg to enclose the bill of loading.
7
Bill of lading not found.
The box contains also 800 specimens of Tasmanian Algae and many other cryptogamic plants besides, nearly 300 papers of seeds, the new vol. of the Melbourne philos. transactions and a few other things.
I have written to you, Sir William, regularly with the mail every month since January and shall feel it my duty to do so always hereafter. Mr Elsey will have arrived long ago in the Alnwick Castle with the primitiae of my bot. collections and a good set of msc, some charts &c. Mr Gregory writes
8
Letter not found.
that in the "Star of peace" the 5 other boxes with specimens became despatched through the Colonial Storekeeper of N.S.W.
9
Most, but not all, of the species included in the second set of plants sent from Sydney to Kew are listed in 'Plant Lists, vol 1. Europe, Asia, Africa, America, Australia, New Zealand & Polynesia, 1845-63', pp. 320-7 (RBG Kew, Library, bound MS).
The last mail will (I hope to your satisfaction) have brought the drawing of
Josephinia Eugeniae

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10
Plate 11 in B57.12.01; the original does not survive at Kew.
by my friend Mr Ludwig Becker, a splendid artist and brother of the Librarian of Prince Albert.
11
Ernst F. G. Becker.
Three of my letters from Sydney were between 20 & 30 pages each, and I hope they arrived safely, as I had no time of retaining a copy. My report
12
B58.05.01.
(60 pages) has gone home however in regular form in triplicate, and a very large lot of botanic descriptions will have reached Kew in the [J]un[e]-mail
With much pleasure I avail myself, Sir William, of your kind offer of supplying this establishment with some of the treasures of Kew gardens, and I solicit your kindness to let us have any of those plants enumerated in the enclosed list,
13
W. Hooker has annotated the letter 'Recd. Sept. 26. 1857. (N.B. No list of plants desired enclosed v. p. 5 bottom)'. The list was not completed in time to enclose with this letter, (see below), but was sent later, see M to W. Hooker, August 1857 (in this edition as 57-08-00a).
which you might have to spare. As I shall be entrusted with the unlimited control of this garden hereafter, I am but too anxious to see it flourish.
I despatched a man
14
John Watters. See M to F. McCoy, 1 August 1857.
to Wilsons Promontory with 6 Wardian Cases, to secure young plants of
Fagus Cunninghami

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,
Atherosperma

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&c &c, and hope to be able to send in a very short time one or two cases with living plants and as large a collection of timber as obtainable. M. P. Ramel, a French gentleman, has kindfully undertaken to bring to Kew an other parcel of specimens (1[…]8
15
illegible — obscured by binding strip.
species) and the new vol of the Melb. philos transactions. He leaves with this mail (the Colum[bus).]
16
editorial addition — obscured by binding strip.
A revision of my
Polygoneae

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with the guide of Prof. Meisners excellent and elaborate paper in DC pr.
17
Meisner (1856a).
has given some interesting results, which I beg to lay before you in the shape of a separate paper.
18
M seems not to have published a paper specifically on Polygonum.
A New-Caledonian plant of this order has in absence of fruit been referred to the genus Polygonum, with which it fully agrees in the structure of its flowers; but it introduces into the genus and even into the order the str[a]ng[e] feature of the
Xylophylla

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— Phyllanthi. It is but scantily foliated, often quite leafless, and the branches are always flatt delightfully green, transparent and densely articulated.
I am indebted to the kindness of Mr Shepherd, the well known horticultur[ist]
19
editorial addition — obscured by binding strip. All square brackets in the following paragraph have this meaning.
of Sydney for a specimen of this extraordinary plant, which I called
Polygonum platycladum

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, and which will form a pecul[iar] section of the genus. Besides notes on the distribution of many known species I beg to offer the account of a new
Rumex

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,
20
Presumably R. halophilus, B63.10.01, p. 48.
a new Polygonum, a detailed description of P. articulatum […] and introduce now as results of the Gregori[an] Expedition
Polygonum barbatum

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L & glabrum Will[d] into the Australian Flora.
Highly gratifying it was to me when I became convinced, that we posess an undescribed genus of
Proteaceae

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in Eastern subtropical Australia. With a sprick of
Polygonum platycladum

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I enclose the only flowering specimen of this n. g., which the keen eye of Mr Hill at last discovered in our conjoint excursion, and I was lucky enough to find burried in the ground under the tree a solitary somewhat decayed follicle. This genus, which I shall distinguish as
Macadamia

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in compliment to my ingenious friend Dr M'Adam, the Hon. Secretary of our philos Institute differs from Xylomelum in unilaterally bursting fruit, from
Orites

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in appendiculate anthers and somewhat woody seedvessels, from both in racemous flowers, longer filaments, a hypogynous ring, and leaves three in a verticell; from
Adenostephanus

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in simple leaves differently disposed. Structure and number of seeds remained yet unknown. It is a magnificent tree with large leaves. I am aware that none of the above characters alone is sufficient for the formation of a new genus in the proteaceous order, but as several of them unite against the characteristics of the genera known, I feel obliged to keep this plant in a generic position. What I forwarded doubtfully as Grev. Banksii proves after comparing the more complete account of that plant by Meisner a totally unknown sp. forming also a large timber tree which must be regarded as one of the grandest productions of our Flora. I shall call it now
Grevillea Hilliana

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, for I owe its flowering specimens to the keen eye of my fellow-traveller of Moreton Bay. The only
Macadamia

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which I possess shall follow by the next mail, for I wished to make a drawing of it previous to its transmission to guard against loss.
I took the great liberty, Sir William, to transmit a bill of exchange for such of the London nurserymen, as you think would best supply this garden with evergreen trees and shrubs of rarer and more useful species. I was unable to finish the list by this mail of those plants particularly desirable for us, otherwise I certainly should not have molested you with this.
I feel very proud, Sir William, that my humble services have met with your and his Excellency's the Governor Generals approbation,
21
Presumably W. J. Hooker quoted or paraphrased the praise of M contained in W. Denison to W. Hooker, 8 April 1857: 'I have had some talk with him, and he is a real enthusiast — my Brother asked him about the country & climate and expressed some opinion as to the comfort of moving about in such a country — when Mueller observed that they had shade and a pannikin of tea — and "what could we want more" certainly a man whose wants are so limited is just the person for an exploring expedition —' (RBG Kew, Directors' letters, vol. lxxiv, Australia letters 1851-8, letter no. 56).
and the manyfold kindness and great indulgence thus evinced will be a great encouragement to continue vigourously on the path of botanical discovery.
I feel very much indebted to Dr Hooker for the kind aid he offered in purchasing some books for me and also to Dr Harvey, and wish that it will lay in my power to serve these excellent men also on my side.
Believe me, Sir William,
to remain ever your most attached
servant
Ferd. Mueller.
Sir Will. Jacks. Hooker, K.H.
&c &c &c