Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew Correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1882-90, ff. 103-104. 84.06.01

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker, 1884-06-01. 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/84-06-01>, accessed September 10, 2025

1/6/84
1
Annotated by Hooker: And. July 21 /84 J.D.H. [letter not found] and by W. Thiselton-Dyer(?): Recd. July 29/84.
By this post, dear Sir Joseph, half a hundred species of plants, according to the list of Prof. Oliver, have been forwarded;
2
The list, sent on 5 April 1884, has not been found. See M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 10 January 1884 and notes thereto.
and I will try to send each Gov. mail as many more, so that in less than a year the whole will be absolved. Unfortunately the specimens are very fragmentary; but in most cases the supplies of these new plants from various collectors are scanty, and they never went to any place abroad. While ill, I could not select and label the specimens myself, and I now find that the first lot has no special localities noted; this shortcoming will not occur hereafter.
3
There is a vertical blue pencil line in the margin of the MS next to no special localities ... hereafter.
I have to thank you for sending me your extensive Garden Report for 1882.
4
R eport on the progress and conditions of the Royal gardens at Kew, 1882: ‘The Report of the Director on the Progress and Condition of the Royal Gardens at Kew for the year 1882 was unavoidably delayed. It bears date only from November 1, 1883, and was not published until well on in 1884’ (Nature, vol. 30, pp. 316-7 (31 July 1884). There is a general mention of palms on pp. 10-11, and in Appendix 2 a list of 420 palms cultivated at Kew.
It reminds me of happier days of my own in earlier years! On a few subjects, alluded to in the report, I would solicit some special information
5
There are double vertical blue pencil lines in the margin of the MS next to I would . . . special information.
as bearing on the Flora of Australia. Have you found distinctions of specific value between
Caryota Rumphiana

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and C. Alberti? - The
Ptychosperma Normanbyana

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is fully described in the 11th vol. of the Fragm. as such already in 1878.
6
M described the species as Ptychosperma Normanbyi in B78.11.04, p. 56, after previously describing it as Areca Normanbyi in B74.09.02, p. 235.
Have you clearly identified
Livistona humilis

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with L. Leichhardti?
7
M described the species as Livistona leichhardtii in B74.08.01, p. 221.
The latter is aged an unusually tall palm, and known to me only from Carpentaria and Arnhem’s Land. If R. Br. really also got it there, - then he saw it only in a young state, though flowering. The name for the species would be utterly inappropriate; but that could hardly be helped perhaps. - L inermis cannot possibly be the same as L. Ramsayi or
Licuala Muelleri

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, if R. Br. got it from Carpentaria. The Licuola is strictly confined to the eastern slopes of the Ranges of N.E. Australia, inhabiting the shady wet high mountain-gullies, while such localities for the growth of this palm exist on none of the islands of Carpentaria, so far as I am aware. If, as Mr Bentham says, it may prove a var of L. humilis, then it is widely removed from the Licuala, which has not lobed but only toothed almost peltate leaves. I have not Martius costly Nat. Hist. of Palms, to refer to Bauer’s plate;
8
C. Martius (1823–53), vol. 3, has plates of Livistona humilis, tabs 109–11 drawn by Ferdinand Bauer. The incomplete copy of the title in the library at the Melbourne Herbarium, of M provenance, was evidently acquired by him later than March 1892; see M to Gardeners' chronicle, March 1892 (in this edition as 92-03-00e).
nor is the work in our public Library, though I recommended repeatedly its purchase. If I had a rough tracing of Bauers plates of Livistonas, I might help to elucidate this perplexed subject.
9
There are double vertical pencil lines in the margin of the MS next to If I had a rough tracing . . . Livistonas.
If you lost the
Monochoria cyanea

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, I could procure seeds anew.
10
There is a single vertical pencil line in the margin of the MS next to If you lost . . . anew.
Pray, remember me to Mr Bentham, and let me hope that spring and summer will bring him renewed strength.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller