Document information

Physical location:

Am 27/6, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney. 58.12.14

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Ronald Gunn, 1858-12-14. 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/58-12-14>, accessed April 3, 2025

Melb. bot. & zoolg. Garden,
14
1
14 replacing 13. deleted.
Dec. 1858.
My dear Mr Gunn,
I beg to return by this mail your specimens of
Gunnia

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, which you so obligingly forwarded. One of them I retained. It is with regret to say, that the plant cannot rank as a separate genus, and Prof. Lindley would not have removed it from Sarcochilus, had any one spec. of that genus at the time been properly known, only R Br definition of
Sarcochilus falcatus

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being then available. Since six or seven new Sarcochili have been found in East Australia & India, which break any limit between
Gunnia

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& Sarcochilus down, at least according to my view of genera. I am infinitely sorry, that now little hope is left, to celebrate your name with a Tasmanian genus , but I will strive for the resurrection of the
Gunnia

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in Australia, and ere long Mr Oldfields or Mr Babbage's collection, I do not doubt, will offer the opportunity. Mr Gregory's plants from Coopers Creek
2
During his Leichhardt search expedition, 1858. M identified and labelled the plant specimens collected by Gregory during the expedition and these were then deposited, because the expedition had been funded by the NSW Government, at the Sydney Botanic Garden (see A. Gregory to C. Moore, 1 December 1858; no. 21, MS Q431 outward letter copy book, p. 43, A. C. Gregory papers, Dixson Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney). M's report was published as B59.04.03.
did contain no new genus, and those from North Australia are now all dedicated.
Your letter
3
Letter not found.
reached me a few days too late to stop the publication of the Sarcochilus
4
Presumably S. gunnii (B59.02.03, p. 90).
together with other parasitical Orchids, amongst which
Dendrobium Milligani

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is the most interesting.
I beg to send you to day the last spare copy of my report
5
B58.05.01?
& a copy of Mr Gregorys last report, the latter document you will perhaps be so kind after perusal to send to the Royal Society of Tasmania.
6
A verson of Francis Gregory's report on his 'exploration from Perth, Swan River, by Hawkes' Bay, the Gascoigne and Upper Gascoigne Rivers, the Lyons River, the Murchison, &c,' was laid on the table at the meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania held on 25 January 1859 (Courier (Hobart), 27 January 1859, p. 2). His report had been published in WA newspapers (F. Gregory (1858)); it was read at the Royal Geographical Society in London at its meeting of 8 November 1858, and published as F. Gregory (1859). The version M sent to Gunn has not been determined. The National Library of Australia's digital version of Gregory's map of his journey is available at http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-231435228 (accessed 10 November 2018).
Thanking you for your friendly attention and kindness, and wishing you the best health & all prosperity
I remain, my dear Mr Gunn,
your very humble
Ferd. Mueller
Dr Hooker misled me by describing the sepals of
Gunnia

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as yellow; they are green.
7
See M to J. Hooker, 15 December 1858 (in this edition as 58-12-14a).
To Prof Lindley I sent an Apollo Bay specimen in January but received no answer.
If I could get at any time a few flowers of your second
Patersonia

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in a phiol of Brandy, I would gladly determine it