Ferdinand von Mueller

16/9/96

Copy

1

Original letter not found. King made copies of this and three succeeding letters from M (M to G. King, 24 September 1896; M to G. King, 28 September 1896; M to G. King, 30 September 1896) and sent them to Frederick McCoy, with whom she had been corresponding on another matter.

Dear Miss King,

This letter is by dictation as I suffer from a slight attack of Influenza which has not kept me from ordinary office work, but rendered me too fatigued for writing long letters at late evening hours. I have two subjects of great interest to bring before you and do not like to postpone the communication. It will be pleasing to you when you hear that amongst the native plants sent by you some time ago is the Boronia floribunda on which your specimens shed additional light; this plant was discovered the the Austrian Traveller Sieber about 70 years or more ago either in the vicinity of Pt Jackson or in the Blue Mountains. Mr Bentham had the chance of seeing an original specimen gathered and named by Sieber himself. No Botanist sent me a specimen until your plants arrived they probably passing Sieber's plant as a variety of Boronia pinnata. Bentham regarded it a a representative of Dimorphism,

2

Bentham (1863-78), vol. 1, p. 319.

but Prof. Urban of Berlin who had occasion to examine an authentic specimen of Sieber restored this plant to specific right,

3

Urban (1883), p. 39 2.

and on his authority I gave it a place as distinct in the 2nd Census

4

B89. 12.03 , p. 18.

which work you have. Prof Springel

5

i.e. Sprengel, in his edition of Linnaeus (1825-8), vol . 4 , part 2, p. 148 .

having described it in 1827.

I intend to write an article for the Linnean Society of N.S.W.

6

M sent a description of the Boronia, mentioning King's role in finding it, to the Linnean Society of New South Wales, where it was read at the meeting held on 30 September 1896 (see B97.05.01 for the published version). At the following meeting of the Society, on 28 October, H. Deane, the President, 'formally announced the death on the 10th inst., of Baron von Mueller, who was one of the first two Honorary Members of the Society to be elected (Jan. 22nd, 1876)'. At the same meeting, on 'behalf of Miss Georgina King, Mr. [J. J.] Fletcher communicated several letters written during the last fortnight of September, accompanied by sketches, from Baron von Mueller, on the subject of Boronia floribunda referred to in the note read at the last Meeting’, and summarized the leading points made in the letters (Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales, vol. 21 (1896), pp. 507; 584-5).

The file at the Museum of Victoria includes letters from G. Luehmann to King, 16 January 1897 and 29 January 1897, with sketches by him of Boronia floribunda and Boronia pinnata and his summaries of leading features of the flowers, and also a file copy of a letter from McCoy to King, 6 May 1897, responding to her sending him these documents that 'The Boronia drawings are most conclusive, and I hope Mr. Luhman [ sic ] will do justice to your proof of the Baron's views'.

and when once attention has been directed to this species so long overlooked it may likely be yet found in various parts of the colony. Some of your specimens of B. floribunda show leaflets considerably broader than the returned sample.

7

'Some of your specimens ... the returned sample.' is written at the end of the letter, its intended point of insertion into the main text being indicated by a cross.

I send you a small specimen of B. floribunda and of B. pinnata, but must remark that the foliage in some of the latter approaches somewhat to that of B. floribunda, but if you examine the flowers you will find that 4 of the anthers are much smaller than the 4 others, that the style is very short and that the stigma is much broader. Sieber does not seem to have found fruiting specimens which likely will now fall to your share.

The ripe seeds of Boronia afford in many instances good marks of specific distinction.