Document information
Physical location:
Natural History Museum, London, Museum Archives, DF404/5, folder 71,Mueller, Sir FJH von. 85.12.03aPreferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to William Carruthers, 1885-12-03 [85.12.03a]. 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/85-12-03a>, accessed April 20, 2025
3/12/85
Would you oblige me, dear Mr Carruthers, by ascertaining, whether in your collections
from Forster’s Herbarium
specimens of Myoporum pubescens or M. crassifolium exist. The former is left unnoticed for N. Zeal. by Sir J. Hooker;
perhaps it is a downy form of M. laetum; the other may be M. insulare,
if Botanices Insula means Botany Bay
, (is this so?) in which case the specific name may also have originated with Solander.
1
Most of the plant specimens collected by Johann Reinhold Forster and his son George
during James Cook's second voyage of exploration (1772-4) had gone to the British Museum, where Carruthers was based.
2
G. Forster (1786a), p. 44, listed four species of
Myoporum, namely
M. laetum
and
M. pubescens, both said to be from NZ,
M. crassifolium
from 'Botanices insula', and
M. tenuifolium
from New Caledonia. J. Hooker (1853-5), vol. 1, pp. 204-5, gives
M. laetum
as the only
Myoporum
from NZ and remarks: 'Myoporum pubescens, Forst. Prodr., is quite unknown to me, and probably belongs to some other genus'. 'Botanices Insula' is a small islet near New Caledonia.
See
G.
Forster (1777), vol. 2, p. 439, entry for 30 September 1774:
Captain Cook gave this little islet the name of Botany Island, because it contained
in so small a space a
flora
of nearly thirty species, among which we saw several new ones. Its situation is nearly
22°
28'
S. and 167° 16' E.
If these two dubious plants are available in your collection would you oblige with
sending fragments to me.
3
No specimens of these species are preserved in the Forster Collection in the Melbourne herbarium.
My monograph[y] of Myoporinae is almost completed, so far as the 80 Quarto-plates
are concerned.
4
The plates were published in B86.08.05. No text volume was ever published.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller
I trust, you will take a favorable view as regards my propositions concerning Mr Forbes
Papuan plants.
5
M was seeking to have a role in describing the plants collected in an expedition funded by British bodies by Henry Forbes, who had arrived in Port Morseby in September and had offered support for M's work on Papuan plants. See H. Forbes to M, 19 September 1885 (in this edition as 85-09-19c) and M to W. Carruthers, 21 October 1885 (in this edition as 85-10-21a).
Myoporum crassifolium
Myoporum insulare
Myoporum laetum
Myoporum pubescens