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RBG Kew. Kew Correspondence, Australia, Mueller. 1871-81. ff. 258-259. 80.03.03Preferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker, 1880-03-03. 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/80-03-03>, accessed September 11, 2025
3/3/80.
Herewith, dear Sir Joseph, I beg to send you some pinnae of a Polypodium (or perhaps
Aspidium) from extra-tropical East-Australia, concerning which some misapprehension
has prevailed since many years. Your great parent noted it in his own handwriting
in my collection as a variety of Aspidium decompositum,
possibly mislead by my own sorting of the specimens. In this view I followed Sir Will.
Hooker (fragm. V, 137),
stating however that the rhizomes needed comparison & keeping this Polypodium at least
as a
var.
apart. Since, the Rev. Dr Wools and Mr Bailey, who lived among these ferns, have assured
me, that the Polypodium - now forwarded - has
never
any indusium; it differs also in the narrower more sharply teethed lobes & in the
rhizomes.
1
A search at MEL has failed to find a specimen with such a note by William Hooker.
2
B66.02.01, pp. 136-7.
I am not sure, whether it is identical with Lastraea davalloides
of Brakenridge,
as I have no authentic specimen to compare, but Aspidium or Polypodium effusum, of
which Grisebach distinctly says, that its indusium is often suppressed, comes evidently
near to it, from what I see of South American specimens.
3
Lastrea davallioides?
4
Brackenridge? Brackenridge (1854-5).
As this fern is sure to come under cultivation, if indeed it is not already so in
your conservatories, you will be interested in it, and so you or Dr Baker may think
it worthwhile to see what it really is. If new, I like to see it named in honor of
Mr Bailey, as he and the Rev. Dr Woolls have the credit, to have independently shown
its perfect specific distinction from A. decompositum.
I have it from the following localities: Genoa, F.v.M., Mt Dromedary, Reader; Illawarra,
Moore; Nepean, Woolls; Blue Mountains, Mrs Calvert; New England, C. Stuart; Cloud's
Creek, Dr Beckler; New England, C. Stuart;
Clarence River, M Gillivray;
Richmond River, Fawcett;
Brisbane-River, Bailey; Condamine-River, Hartmann.
5
The only fern named by Baker with a specific epithet honouring Bailey that is listed
in IPNI is
Gymnogramma baileyi
in
Kew Bulletin
(1892). See annotation transcribed in n. 11 below.
6
It is not clear whether M had two separate collections by Stuart from New England,
or whether the repetition is an error.
7
M'Gillivray?
8
C. H. Fawcett.
9
Carl Hartmann.
From an original specimen, obtained from Vienne, I find that Nephrodium colanthum
of Norfolk Island is the real N. decompositum.
10
Nephrodium calanthum?
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
11
Annotation below signature:
This looks to me, spite of its want of involucre, a mere variety of
Nephrodium decompositum
. Polypodium Rufescens, Blume, is, I think, an Anal[a]gous form of the less-divided
variety of the same species. | J G B. [John Gilbert Baker].
Allow me to ask you, dear Sir Joseph, whether you met among Cruciferae any species,
in which the color of the petals varies yellow and white? You must have seen an enormous
lot of these plants, when working for the “genera”
on this order. I believe, that I have two species, one a Capsella, the other an Erysimum,
which have the petals yellow & white (or pink) also, but not on the same spot of growth.
Thus I was unable to affirm, whether they are mere varieties. As a rule, the color
in this respect is very constant, altho' all colors vary white exceptionally, but here the white of the two is prevalent.
12
Bentham & Hooker (1862–83).
13
See J. Hooker to M, 28 April 1880.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
14
The first postscript paragraph is on a separate sheet of paper, f. 262 in the guard
book, and has an annotation '16/4/80' written in red ink diagonally across the text in an unknown hand. The date is presumably
when the item was received at Kew. It has been associated with this letter on the
basis of the annotation and because topics in this postscript and in the body of the
letter are discussed in J. Hooker to M, 28 April 1880. The sheet is signed, but there are other cases of M signing undoubted postscripts.
Could not Celmisia longifolia be naturalized in England? with Gentiana saxosa?
15
The second postscript paragraph is on a separate sheet of paper, f. 263 in the guard
book, and is placed here because the annotation 'cf Raphanus' in red ink relates to J. Hooker to M, 28 April 1880.
Aspidium decompositum
Aspidium effusum
Capsella
Celmisia longifolia
Cruciferae
Erysimum
Gentiana saxosa
Lastraea davalloides
Nephrodium colanthum
Nephrodium decompositum
Polypodium effusum