The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: 25/8/83 ¶ ¶ The "Census", ¶ B83.03.04. ¶ ¶ dear Dr Gray, is to serve multifarious purposes; here as an index to the Australian portion of my Museum, as a framework of a new flora &c. &c. Allow me al...

25/8/83

The "Census",

1

B83.03.04.

dear Dr Gray, is to serve multifarious purposes; here as an index to the Australian portion of my Museum, as a framework of a new flora &c. &c. Allow me also to remark, what I have done already in a former letter, that since nearly 20 years I have no longer kept the Monochlamydeae (or as now unnecessarily called Incompletae) together,

2

Former letter not identified. See Maroske (2006) for a discussion of M's views.

that I implored Bentham & Hooker, when they commenced the "genera"

3

Bentham & Hooker (1862-83). See M to G. Bentham, 24 January 1862.

to do away with that unnatural portion of the Jussieu system,

4

Jussieu (1789).

changed by D.C.

5

A. P. de Candolle (1819), p. 247. There is no copy of this edition in the Library at MEL. The earlier edition, A. P. de Candolle (1813) is present, and it uses 'apetales' in the tabulation at p. 206, and on p. 218 has no formal name for the group described as 'à périgone simple, ou dont le calice et la corolle ne forment qu'une seule enveloppe' [simple perigon, or where the calyx and the corolla form only a single envelope]. The group with the same description is labelled 'Monochlamydées' in the 1819 edition.

from Apetaleae to Monochlamydeae, to which pleading the answer was, that D.C' system must be adhered to in its entirety, because it was every where in use! According to that , also Linné's system should have never been abandoned. The Monochlamydeae may still drag on til the end of the century, but will not likely be maintained far into the next secular epoch! I need not mention to so leading a naturalist as yourself, to what extremity B. & H.

6

George Bentham and Joseph Hooker.

are driven, by being obliged to place actually the Loranthaceae into the Monochlamydeae.

In sorting out plants into the great divisions, it is now quite a comfort to me, not to be troubled with the Monochlamydeae. Two European University-Professors sent me lately a Polycarpaea each as a Gomphrena; this is very pardonable, but shows, that a system cannot be in all respects natural, which keeps Caryophylleae near the commencement of Dicotyledonea and Amarant.

7

Amaranthaceae.

near their end.

Pardon me, when I remark, that from the very commencement of my using the nat. system, more than 40 years ago, I felt that the wording Polypetaleae and Monopetaleae are misnomers , as in the great majority of cases their flowers are oligopetalous. The terms Choripetaleae and Synpetaleae are publicly with me in 1866,

8

See B66.13.05, pp. 20, 45. This French translation of M's essay for the Intercolonial Exhibition, Melbourne, 1866-7, was published before the Official record that contained it, B67.13.02, and before the separate publication in English, B67.13.12. The terms were used without explanation or justification.

long before Eichler,

9

A. Eichler (1875-8).

who however was not aware of this fact. If we maintain the name Polypetaleae on priority, we must keep up also Monopetaleae.

10

'If we … Polypetaleae' is written on the left margin of the page numbered 7 by M; 'on priority … Monopetalae' is written below this in the right margin of the page numbered 6 by M, these pages evidently having once been the inner two pages of a folded sheet. M presumably placed this sentence here because the margin on p. 5, where the question of Polypetaleae and Monopetaleae is discussed, was by the time M thought to add the sentence already occupied by other marginal text (see n. 15). In this transcription, however, the sentence is placed in its logical position in the text.

Jackson in his "guide" writes also Linné .

11

B. Jackson (1881), p. 6.

DC writes Linne.

12

A. P. de Candolle (1819), passim.

I have nearly all L.'s

13

Carl von Linnaeus.

works, but not the three "Resa",

14

Linnaeus (1745); also Linnaeus (1747) and Linnaeus (1751).

so that I do not know, how L spelled his name in his native tongue. The accent is to show merely that the end e is not a silent one.

15

The accent … silent one written in left margin of p. 5 of letter .

I see however in my library, that Schrebers edition of the Materia medica in Latin (1773) says Caroli a Linné mat. med.!

16

Linné (1773).

As he was a disciple of L., this ought to be some authority. In Germany I never saw L.'s name otherwise written; indeed not only Brockhaus writes it so in the Encyclopaedie,

17

Brockhaus (1866), p. 480.

but also Chambers in the English Encyclopaedia.

18

Chambers ' s encyclopaedia (1868), vol. 6, p. 142. M also wrote to J. Agardh seeking clarification (letter not found) and then sent a translation of the reply in M to the Linnean Society of New South Wales, December 1883 (in this edition as 83-12-00c); M's letter was published in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales (1883), vol. 8, pp. 532-3 (B84.04.10).

It seemed to me best to adhere to one mode of spelling the names of Botanists, thus I kept to l'Ecluse, Bock

19

Charles de L'Ecluse and Hieronymus Bock were herbal writers. M owned L'Ecluse (1601) and L'Ecluse (1605), see B65.10.01, but there is no indication that he owned any of Bock's works.

&c

It is with deep sorrow, that I hear of Mr. Bentham's failing health; after some repose he is likely to become invigorated again, unless some form of organic disease set in. We shall miss that great man all very much, after he passed away; my wish to meet him once in life will not likely be realized.

The use of the seeds of Abrus in Pannus and Trachoma will interest you much, as it depends on a bacterian fermentive principle, and supersedes so much more rationally and controlably the use of other inflammatory secretions, such as the antiquated blennorrhoeal. Some of the Australian Olearias are almost herbaceous, for instance O. ciliata; at best the woody stem could as little be generic as in Senecio & numerous other Composite genera Australian and Extraaustralian, so far as I venture to judge. Let me hope that you are now quite well again and with ease and happiness continue your glorious researches. Regardfully your

Ferd von Mueller.

20

The two paragraphs that follow are on separate sheets and may not belong to this letter.

I admit, that a difficulty exists about the term Calyceae, especially so long as we have not yet settled the value of Lodiculae etc in Grasses, unless we adopt implicitly the views of Hackel.

21

Hackel (1881).

But to call the floral lobes of Orchids, Amaryllideae &c sepals and petals, is utterly inconsonant to calyx lobes and petals in Rosaceae, Myrtaceae &c

Habit does not debar Cucurbitaceae to be brought near Compositae, both gamapetalous. The grand climber, Senecio scandens, covers many a wall or bower here. Acanthosicyos horrida is an almost leafless but spiny bush without tendrils. The flowers of some Melothrias are smaller than those of many Composites (Cynara Scolymus etc.) The contact given by me to Orders cannot be applied to all other countries, as not all orders are represented in Australia; but I do think, that I have for the first time given to Elatineae, Plumbagineae, Plantagineae and some others their exact systematic position. The Curvembryonatae are all inseparable

Abrus

Acanthosicyos horrida

Amaranthaceae

Amaryllideae

Apetaleae

Caryophylleae

Choripetaleae

Compositae

Cucurbitaceae

Curvembryonatae

Cynara Scolymus

Dicotyledonea

Elatineae

Gomphrena

Incompletae

Loranthaceae

Melothria

Monochlamydeae

Monopetaleae

Myrtaceae

Olearia ciliata

Plantagineae

Plumbagineae

Polycarpaea

Polypetaleae

Rosaceae

Senecio scandens

Synpetaleae

The correspondence of

Ferdinand von Mueller

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