Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The fan-palms of Australia', Gardeners' chronicle, 14 May 1892, p. 619 (B92.05.02 ), continued in 'Fan palms of Australia', Gardeners' chronicle, 21 May 1892, pp. 652-3 (B92.05.03). The letter is dated to late March as the latest likely date that it could have been sent for the first part to have been included in the issue of 14 May.

In the year 1854 it was demonstrated by myself that the most southern place reached by Palms in continental Australia was near the entrance to the Snowy River, at 37° 30', where Livistona australis was found by me to reach a height of 80 feet (see my Of f icial Report to the Victorian Parliament, pp. 5 and 15 of that year

2

B54.10.01.

). At that time the most ea stern part of Gippsland was un settled, and the last eastern habitation was deserted, a s of the two inhabitants, the "hut-keeper " had just before been slain by the cannibals of that region, and the "stock-man " ha d only saved his life on horse back by jumping the fences of the station. The last part of my journey then had to be effected on foot, as I could not get my horses without help across the Snowy River ; yet accompanied by one " old hand," I penetrated, armed, of course, for several miles beyond the locality of the massacre, through the dense " bush," the autochthones getting often near us, and being in possession of fire-arms robbed from the hut. I satisfied myself there and then that the Gippsland Palm was the genuine Livistona australis of my never-to-be-forgotten friend, Von Marti u s, this species being well known here in cultivation. Already, then, since that time the same noble Palm has been discovered in two other localities, in jungles not very far from the Snowy River, which watercourse, though bearing so frigid a name as coming from the Australian Alps, where I had just before advanced to the glaciers of its courses, flows in its lowest course really through an always winter less country, teeming with sub- tropical vegetation ( vide Report, 1854).

When a party of the Victorian Field Naturalists Club, at my suggestion, made a tour, some few years ago, through the whole length of the country, from the Snowy River to the Genoa, Professor Spencer, Mr. C. French,

3

Charles French Snr.

Mr. Frost, Mr. Jackson, and Mr. Searl

4

Searle.

went to one of the isolated spots, where the Livistona grows, and under an umbrella, while it rained heavily, a pencil-sketch of the Palm was made, from which hasty drawing the lithographic illustration was taken which appeared in the Victorian Naturalist .

5

The report of the party was read at a meeting of the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria on11 February 1889 (Victorian naturalist, vol. 5, pp 153-4) and published as Spencer & French (1889), with Figs 2 and 3 showing, respectively, a young and a group of fully grown palms.

That under such unfavourable circumstances some inaccuracies occurred in the delineation, cannot be surprising; but while some leaves were drawn rather pinnately, others are shown as q uite fan-shaped. Professor Spencer now points out that the sketch was not correctly lithographed, and that he has since seen the Livistona australis in South Queensland without perceiving differences bet ween it and the Gippsland Palm.

As regards the particular Australian Fan-Palm, which was referred to in a recent number of the Gar deners' Chronicle as having somewhat cuneate leaves, it is not likely to be an extra tropical species.

6

Hemsley (1892). The item appeared in the issue of 6 February, and items from this issue were reported in the Leader (Melbourne) on 19 March 1892, p. 11, consistent with M's having responded later that month.

In the Census of Australian Plants ,

7

B89.12.03.

I admitted only three species of Livistona, inasmuch as dubious or very imperfectly- known species are omitted in that work, and retained for further consideration till another census can be instituted. Thus, I have recorded there besides Livistona australis, only L. Leichardti and L. Mari a e, concerning which some notes are contained in the Frag m. Phytograph. Aus tral . (in vol. iii., 221 and 283, also in vol. xi., 54 and 55) .

8

This is the end of the first part of the published letter, after which is printed ' F. v. Mueller' . The next paragraph begins the second part of the letter, starting on p. 652, under 'FAN PALMS OF AUSTRALIA. ( concluded from p. 619 )'.

Coming now to R. Brown's two intra-tropic specie s of Livistona,

9

R. Brown (1810), pp. 267-8.

it must be admitted that some of the enigmas concerning them have not yet been solved, even after the lapse of nearly a century. In our young libraries here the great Palm-work of Von Marti us

10

C. Martius (1823-53).

is not yet available, he nce I cannot follow up the present enquiry from that source ; but, during the forty- five years of my uninterrupted researches in Australia, I have become acquainted with only one Livi stona in Nature, with the characteristic of ovate fruitlets, ascribed to both L. inermis and L. humilis. It would seem furthermore that the petioles of young plants are far more spinous than those of aged plants, a remark fitting also L. australis. The correct ness of this observation might be tested even in European conservatories. When i n 1856 I saw a tall Livistona far in the interior of Arnhem's-la n d, evidently the same which Leichhardt noticed there in 1845,

11

Leichhardt (1847). Leichhardt first mentioned seeing a Livistona, which he identified as L. humilis, when he was near the Macarthur River; at the southwest corner of the Gulf of Carpentaira, on 7 September 1845; but it was "a small insignificant trunkless plant". "A taller species of this palm", he went on, "as we subsequently found, formed large tracts of forest on the Cobourg Peninsula, and near the Alligator rivers". M, however, was never as far north as that, he must have seen the taller trees further south.

I gave it the name of that lamented geographer, because it agreed not with the short diagnosis given by R. Brown and by Kunth

12

Kunth (1833-50), vol. 3, pp. 241-2.

for the tropic Austral Livistonas, and when I subsequently became almost convinced, so far as I here could judge, that L. humilis is a youthful L. inermis, I kept up the name L. Leichhardti for the united species, their o riginal names having become in applicable now.

T h e third genuine species of Australian Livistona, namely L . Mari a e, occurs in Central Australia on Gill's Range, and also on a tributary of the Finke R iver, in about 24° S., and in West Australia on the Hamersley Range, in about 22° S. It was dedicated at t h e time of nuptial festivities to H.R.H. the Duchess of Edinburgh.

13

B74.08.01, p. 22. See also Dowe & Maroske (2016), especially Table 1.

The greatest height known of this extremely local Palm is 70 feet. The petioles are somewhat s piney at the lower part, and attain a length of 5 feet, and that is also the maximum length of the leaves ; these in a young state are o f a splendid coppery colour, and in age of a remarkable pale green. The panicle had been seen to attain a length of 10 feet, according to notes from the German missionaries in Central Austr alia .

14

The Lutheran missionaries at the Hermannsburg mission.

As seemingly ger minable seeds were sent by me long ago to European gardens, it is probabl y now a well-known Palm in cul ture there, as it is in some parts of Australia . Should this not be the case with you, then living plants might be obtained, for instance, from Mr. J. Edgar, of Rockhampton, Q u eensland. The fruitlets are globular, and particularly large, from the Western Australia locality in con trast with those of L. australis from which species L . Maria e is also distinguished by the paler leaves, with elongated rachis, which forms a solid axis sometimes nearly 1 foot long beyond the petiole, whereby the leaf gets a some what cuneate form ; on this account it seems likely that the unnamed Livistona, referred to in the Gar deners' Chronicle , m ay be L. Mari a e . A rather full description of that Palm, chiefly from Western Aus tralian material, was given in the Fragm . Ph y tograph . A us tral ., xi., 54, 55. But the fruitlets there described had lost their exocarp, which i s brownish outside, and thus less dark-coloured than in other congeners . The flowers, as seen on the West Australian plant, are hardly of half the size, compared to those of L. austral is.