Ferdinand von Mueller

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Annotated by W. Thiselton Dyer: And March 19/84. Letter not found.

29/1/84.

In revising the proof of the 10th decade of the Eucalyptography,

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B84.11.02.

dear Mr Dyer, I have checked the citations of the remarks on the Euc. Manna from Chemical Journals &c. But some doubts have arisen in my mind, whether the Sugar of Eucalyptus described by Prof Jam. F. W. Johnston in the first vol. of the memoirs of the Chemical Society

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J. Johnston (1842).

is what we call now Mellitose, i.e. the crumblike white exudation from Euc. viminalis. Prof. Johnston p. 159 remarks, that this Manna was in rounded tears and of slightly yellowish colour. Now, the real Mellitose is white and amorphous, and the question arises, could Professor Johnson

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Johnston? A line has been drawn in the margin against that this Manna ... Professor.

have had the Lerp, to which Mr Dobson refers in the first vol. of the Royal Society of Tasmania.

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Dobson (1851).

As the lerp is an organic fabric of a physllaceous insect, not the mere outflow after puncturing by Cicadae from Eucalyptus viminalis, the two sugars are neither physically nor chemically identical.

Sir Will. Hooker gave the Tasmanian material to Johnston [2]0

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The most likely reading is 20, a possible reading is 10. Johnston does not state when Hooker gave him the material; the Kew Museum was opened in 1847 (Allan (1967), p. 156).

years before he formed the Kew Museum; so perhaps no authentic specimens are extant any longer of the lot given to Mr Johnston; but I thought you might see or consult with Sir Joseph on the subject. As I have delt with the Melitose and the Lerp rather fully under E. viminalis in the 10th Decade, I should feel obliged, if you would not take the matter up in a litterary way before the Decade is issued.

Perhaps Sir Joseph sent the Euc. sugar himself from Tasmania but he does not allude to the subject in the Flora Tasmaniae

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J. Hooker (1855–60). Letter annotated by John Jackson, Curator of the Kew Museum : There is a specimen of Manna from a species of Eucalyptus , Tasmania. R. Gunn. Esq. in Museum Kew. An original label in Mr Gunns handwriting refers it to Eucalyptus 1097 but I cannot find this number either in the Herbarium or the Tasmanian Flora.

There is an additional annotation by Thiselton-Dyer: Specimen sent March 19/84. See M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 16 May 1884.