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RBG Kew, Directors' letters, vol. LXXV, Australian and Pacific letters 1859-65, letter no. 161. 63.01.23

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Hooker, 1863-01-23. 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/63-01-23>, accessed September 11, 2025

Melbourne bot. Garden,
23. jan 63
Dear Sir William.
When returning from the Barkly Ranges & Mount Useful in the Australian Alps I had the happiness of finding your very kind letter of the 25. November
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Letter not found.
& to learn that your health had so much improved, and nothing could have given me greater delight than these good news. May it, so I ardently wish, be retained by you uninterruptedly for a long time.
My dwelling having been unroofed for the purpose of extending it, I have no access at present to my library & no room & space to work at any collections. I shall therefore go again away for a few weeks & will collect algae on the coast & work up journal notes. But when I return the publications here shall be continued with renewed vigor. I have the pleasure of announcing, that a box with
Leguminosae

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is despatched to you for Mr Benthams use pr "Suffolk" last week, according to enclosed bill of loading.
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Bill of lading not found.
In the alps I made some curious observations on the range of plants, but obtained but few addditional species.
With the kind regards for you & Dr Hooker,
I remain, my dear Sir William,
your grateful & attached
Ferd. Mueller
Our seedharvest is now nearly completed & probably by next mail I shall be able to send the desired seeds for your new magnificent conservatory.
I examined numerous seeds of
Coccoloba platyclada

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, but never find a well developed embryo, altho sometimes a mealy albumen. But the question, whether this plant has any claim to be placed with
Muehlenbeckia

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seems very immaterial, since the latter appears to me merely a subgenus of the former. In
Eriogonum

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namely we have axil and sublateral embryos in different species, also hermaphrodit[a] as well as polygamous flowers. The same as regards flowers might be said of
Polygonum

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itself, whilst even the dry-fruited Polyg. diclinum is strictly dioecious.
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I examined ... strictly dioecious is on a separate sheet and may not have originally been part of this letter. M had sent a drawing made by J Schoenfeld of
Coccoloba platyclada

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to Kew some months earlier; see M to W. Hooker, 24 May 1862 (in this edition as 62-05-24b). The illustration was published in W. Hooker (1827-64), vol. 89, t. 5382 accompanied by a description and notes written by M (B63.06.01).