Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M46, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 81.11.02

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

William Woolls to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1881-11-02. 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/81-11-02>, accessed September 11, 2025

1
MS found with a specimen of Macrozamia miquelii (MEL 237352). MS annotation by M: 'Answ 5/11/81'. Letter not found.
Richmond
2
All places named are in NSW.
Nov 2nd 1881
My dear Baron
I went to Manly Beach yesterday on purpose to look after Macrozamia spiralis .
It grows about a mile or so from the sea, in a soil of sand & decomposed vegetable matter amidst some Eucalypts & a variety of shrubs.
(1) The length of the leaf-stalk in full grown plants is five or six feet, & the number of leaflets 60 pairs!
3
A sample leaf was inserted into the letter at this point, but has since been removed.
(2) The lower leaflets always shorten gradually, & the lowest ones are reduced to sharp thorns.
(3) There is no wool either on the stalk or leaves, but the whole plant is glabrous.
(4) The stems rise 15 or 18 inches above the ground, being about a foot in diameter. (the small plant has the caudex underground)
(5) The lowest leaves (those last formed?) are about two feet.
(6) The apex of the leaflets is mucronate.
(7) The peduncle of the male cone is a foot or more, the cone itself 9 or 10 inches long & from 6 to 8 inches round, the scales ¾ of an inch broad with turned up cuneiform, pungent points
I was not so fortunate as to find a female cone , but I picked up a few nuts. I am afraid the cones will not be ripe before autumn, but a friend has promised to examine the plants at Randwick.
M. spiralis occurs near the coast from Port Jackson (or perhaps more northward) to Twofold Bay
It differs from the other species in not having the leaflets ever toothed, & in having a flat instead of a terete rachis: being also smooth.
I noticed a few plants of the dwarf species growing amongst the others. The young leaflets were toothed at the apex. The leaf stalks are woolly at the base.
The female cone in M. spiralis is larger than D.C states,
4
A de Candolle (1868), p. 535.
& the leaves more numerous. In some, there are 60 pairs, whilst in the dwarf ones, they seldom are more than 30 or 40, though in one I counted 45.
I have two plants of the small one near at hand, but I do not think the cones will be ready before Xmas. They are smaller than those of the true M. spiralis.
I send you by post the following:
No. (1) Three pieces of a leaf of M. spiralis which had 60 pairs of leaflets. The three pieces are from the top, the middle, & the base.
No. (2) A new or young frond.
No. (3) Leaves &c of the small Macrozamia
In the other parcel are some scales of the male cone of M. spiralis & a few nuts of the same from a female plant. They are last years & have shrunk.
Yours very sincerely
W. Woolls
5
A herbarium label is filed with the letter, marked by M: 'Macrozamia miquelii. From the coast to the Blue Mountains, in the litoral tract occasionally mixed with M. spiralis. 1881. Woolls'.
Baron Mueller
Melbourne