The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: 27/10/81 ¶ ¶ The umbelliferous annual, sent by you, dear Prof Tate, is Bupleurum tenuissimum L., a plant of wide distribution in Europe (inclusive Britain & Ireland), in N. Africa & W. Asia. It is ev...

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Physical location:

Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide. 81.10.27

Plant names

Bromus unioloides
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Bupleurum tenuissimum
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- Australian Plant Name Index
Eucalyptus cneorifolia
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Eucalyptus oleosa
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Galium
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Quinetia
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Ralph Tate, 1881-10-27. 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/81-10-27>, accessed September 11, 2025

27/10/81

The umbelliferous annual, sent by you, dear Prof Tate, is L., a plant of wide distribution in Europe (inclusive Britain & Ireland), in N. Africa & W. Asia. It is evidently immigrated.

As regards the rights of being considered a native, I beg of you to reconsider the case fully.

See also M to R. Tate, 12 October 1881 (in this edition as 81-10-12a), and M to R. Tate, 7 November 1881.

If you found that little annual near any place, where the K. G. Sound

King George Sound, WA.

Steamers are disembarking their goods, you may be sure, that it is a hospitant. If away from any port or landing place, it will have to be considered, by what likely agency

As regards … agency is marked off by short lines at the beginning and end of the section.

it became disseminated there. The following reasons are against its being a native.

1, is gregarious in S. W. Australia, not near you.

2, If indigenous, it ought to have spread extensively like other annual composites.

3, In five years close searches near Adelaide I never saw it.

4, It is common at KGS.,

King George Sound.

and thus any few seeds of it may with emballage have become spread near Adelaide.

5, As early as 1847 I found in the vallies under Mt Lofty already quite spontaneous, evidently disseminated without other foreign grasses near it.

6, We know now several hundred immigrated plants in Australia, and every year adds to them, especially by the increasing traffic.

7, When botanizing in the little-inhabited places between Swan River & "Geographe"-Bay

WA.

4 years ago, I found a Portuguese there, that any one would have taken for a native. Indeed as the genus is indigenous, I believed to have discovered a new species, until a critical examination of the plant undeceived me.

In the case of , it is the wonder, not that it is now found, but that it did not come across long ago from KGS. Many plants will yet come across from thence with the steamers, and is one which most easily would spread.

The value of your index

Tate (1880).

is enhanced by the rigorous exclusion of immigrated plants; if once that exclusiveness is broken, the pure original aspect of the S. Austr. flora becomes disturbed. Hence I induced also Dr Woolls to banish his immigrated plants to a place at the end of his list.

Woolls (1880). There is a marginal query by M on this page: 'Where is Goden Grove?'. See also M to R. Tate, 7 November 1881. The in question had been found at Golden Grove, SA, which M thought was near the coast. When he learned that it was in fact some distance inland, he accepted Tate's view that the plant was indigenous.

One of the values of my early searches will be to show, what is native, what not.

I look forward with eagerness to sendings from your Kang. Isl.

Kangaroo Island, SA.

friends, and want particularly for my Monography all Eucalypts from thence, especially as I am not yet quite clear about E. cneorifolia, under which name Bentham mixed two very distinct species. I know , what both are, but do not know what intermediate stages the one of Kangaroo Island may show to E. oleosa. Fruit -specimens (branchlets) can — at all events — be got at any season of any of our myrtaceous plants.

I am sorry to hear of the death of my former assistant.

Ernst Heyne.

He left me in good health, on his own accord, to establish his seed-business there. I raised him over the head of all other employees, more than doubled in the course of time his salary, gave him an opportunity by his being with me in my office to add daily to his knowledge, and have shown him numerous favors, which he could never reciprocate.

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.

Please thank the council for the kindness of according space to me in the new volume of your R.S. I find however at this moment myself hard pressed to finish off some arrear work in the Department here; and it would be some weeks before I could send you any manuscripts; kindly tell me what would be the latest "termin" to furnish my contribution. If it cannot be a lengthy one, I will send at least some brief notes in time.

The deadline set by Tate was 18 November; see M to R. Tate, 13 November 1881. M did send, in time, as promised, a short paper in which he described two new species; see B82.01.02.

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.