Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M198, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 79.09.21

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Otto Tepper, 1879-09-21. 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/79-09-21>, accessed June 13, 2025

1
MS annotation by Tepper: 'Reply with hardleaf plants 364-438'. Letter not found.
Sonntag
21/9/79.
Hiermit die Namen der Pflanzen, lieber Herr Tepper, welche Sie eben gesandt, soweit solche nach dem vorliegended Material benennbar sind.
Haben Sie Gelegenheit gehabt zu bemerken, wie sich der Zucherstoff in Krümel (als sogenannte Manna) an der Euc. viminalis bildet?
Die gelb-blühende Stackhousia kommt der S. flava von Sir W. Hooker sehr nahe, aber die Blumen sind in Ihrer Art grösser mit stumpferen Zipfeln. Vielleicht ist es doch nur eine Varietät von S. linarifolia, deren Blumenfarbe von weisslich zu gelblich schwankt. In niederm Wuchs stimmt Ihre mit S. flava überein, u. da letztere in Tasmania u West-Austr. vorkommt, mag auch selbige sich in Ihre Gegend erstrecken.
Sie können also auch in diesem Falle die Vergleiche zwischen den beiden Stackhousien (wie zwischen den 2
Myoporum

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u.
Capsella

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-Arten) am besten im freien beobachtend anstellen durch längere Zeit.
Am Besten wäre es bei seltnen Pflanzen einen Zettel am Exemplar zu befestigen, u. auf demselben den genauen Standort u andere Notizen zu bemerken, da man gern die autograph. Bermerkungen der Sammler seltner Arten hat. Ihre diesmaligen Pflanzen geben uns einige neue Standorte.
Sie werden am Ende der Jahreszeit eine hübsche Zusammenstellung der Vegetation der Yorke's Halbinsel veröffentlichen können zumal wenn Sie während der Ferien einige weite Excursionen machen u. namentlich felsige Höhen genau durchsuchen.
Bestens grüssend
Ihr
Ferd. von Mueller
Sunday
21/9/79
Herewith the names of the plants, dear Mr Tepper, which you just sent, as far as they are able to be named according to the material at hand.
Have you had the opportunity to notice how the sugary material forms in crumbs (as so-called manna) on
Eucalyptus viminalis

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?
2
See M to O. Tepper, 18 September 1879 (in this edition as 79-08-18e).
The yellow flowering Stackhousia comes very close to the S. flava of Sir W. Hooker, but the flowers in your species are larger with blunter points. Perhaps it is really only a variety of S. linarifolia, the flower colour of which varies from whitish to yellowish. Yours agrees with S. flava in low growth and since the latter occurs in Tasmania and Western Australia, it may also extend into your region.
Therefore in this case you can also best make the comparison between the two Stackhousias (like between the 2
Myoporum

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and
Capsella

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species) observing in the open over a longer period.
It would be best in the case of rare plants to attach a label on the specimen, and on it to note the exact locality and other notes, because one likes to have the autographic remarks of the collector of rare species. Your plants of this time give us some new localities.
At the end of the season you will be able to publish a handsome compilation of the vegetation of Yorke Peninsula,
3
SA. See Tepper (1880a), to which B80.13.12 is an appendix. At the meeting of 6 April 1880 at which Tepper's paper was read, Ralph Tate said from the chair that 'it afforded him great pleasure to bear testimony to the excellence' of the report, highlighting a number of aspects (pp. xxv-xxvii). The paper began
At the desire of the eminent botanist, Baron F. von Mueller, K.C.M.G., M. & Ph. D., F.R.S., Melbourne, I commenced in the second half of last year to utilise some of my leisure by collecting the plants of the neighbourhood of Ardrossan, with the view thereby to elucidate the floral aspect of the Peninsula, as a narrowly circumscribed and almost isolated area.
especially if you make some long excursions during the holidays and especially search rocky heights closely.
Best greetings
Your
Ferd. von Mueller