The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Hobart Town Novr 10th 1851. ¶ My dear Sir ¶ ¶ I received your welcome letter of Aug 18th ¶ also the enclosure for which I return you my best thanks altho it was not less than I expected from your ki...

Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M36, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 51.11.10

Plant names

Acacia Sophoræ
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Alyxia buxifolia
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Clematis microphylla
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Compositæ
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Corræa viridis
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Ctenospermum collinum
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Drosera Menziesii
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Drosera debilicaulis
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Eclipta erecta
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Eucalyptus
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Gymnoschœnus adustus
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Lawrencia oleracea
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Loudonia Behrii
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Pittosporum bicolor
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Pittosporum mimosoides
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Polypompholyx adenotricha
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Priorotes cerinthoides
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Santalum
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Tetragonella amplexicoma
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Preferred Citation:

Charles Stuart to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1851-11-10. 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//letters/1850-9/1851/51-11-10-final.odt>, accessed May 10, 2026

For a summary of this letter see Daley (1935), pp. 154-6.

Hobart Town Novr 10th 1851.

My dear Sir

I received your welcome letter of Aug 18th

Letter not found.

also the enclosure for which I return you my best thanks altho it was not less than I expected from your kindness & as you refuse a loan I will endeavour to make it up in the way you mention, for as I have no disguise from you I may say in my present circumstances it will be a favor for me to be enabled to do so. I have been able to make but one slight journey to Mount Wellington as yet & that was too early for the summit it being covered with snow even now, I have even obtained some specimens particularly of a plant I have been long anxious to send you the which is our most beautiful Epacridæous plant as far as known. The weather is so very boisterous at present that I shall not be able to go again for a week or two but that will be in good time & depend I shall let no opportunity slip as far as my present situation will allow, but my present employer takes no interest in any thing of the kind which is a great hindrance to me, as I am confined to hard work all day & no opportunity for reading or study at night but hope shortly to get more liberty — it is very discouraging to have no one to speak to on a subject which I take the greatest pleasure in as you well can imagine, I was much pleased with the receipt of the box of specimens & seeds of which latter I have many growing the specimens have indeed interested me very much as there are so many new to me — I have used every opportunity I have had of examining and arranging them but there are a few that I cannot properly place in their natural positions I subjoin a list of such and at some future time I will request some information on the subject you have I see been busy amongst the Eucalypti and , the plants from Mount Remarkable present a different appearance from those of the Murray &c altho' Mount Wellington has been so often visited I still think there are many small plants which have not been collected as most people who go there pounce on the most showy plant and few examine the ground with the eye of a botanist but I will do my best.

I wish you every success in your forthcoming trip which I presume you will have commenced ere this reaches you. I wish I was with you but we must bend to circumstances, I need not say that I am truly obliged to you for your kind intentions and offer, & I shortly hope to be able to give you a definitive answer but I have something in view here which if I succeed in will place me in a situation where I shall have much liberty to injoy my favorite pursuit, untill which I will not say more on the subject — depend on the seeds you require & hope to be able to procure you some which will be valuable from their rarity I have already a few, you enquired in a former letter respecting the habit of ? here the habit is very different from the Alyxia you send, that if I remember right is a upright Bush this is of a more diffuse habit growing in some instances 5 or 6 feet with the assistance of other Shrubs growing near it the roots laying bare on the sand bank on the sea shore of the thickness of 6 inches through & very sweet scented when cut or burnt, quite as agreable as the , but not in sufficient quantity for any useful purpose & from some cause nearly all the plants I saw were dead or dying I am inclined to think that the Corræa No 970 is no more than a variety of C viridis as the plant is extremely variable I had forgot to mention this before — I must also bring under your notice the Clematis mas. & fem. Nos 922-923 which you name C microphylla it differs extremely from C microphylla in its robust habit as well as color of flowers which are of a pale yellow, it is only found here in one locality on the extreme verge of the sea shore climbing amongst the &c but is plentiful on the opposite coast at Portland Bay & port Phillip,

if you will at some future time give [m]e the Natural orders of the following I shall be much obliged as my means of examination are so limited, — —

Ctenosperma collinum?

— & ?

and not listed in APNI (accessed 21 August 2019).

on a second examination I have made my list of unknown families much smaller as above — I have to beg your indulgence for the delay in acknowledging your last letter & Box but thought that you would most likely be from Adelaide the fruit & gum of our Hook. is not of such an intense bitter as the P. mimosoides

not listed in APNI (accessed 21 August 2019).

of S.A the gum which is produced sparingly is of a pink or rosaceous color and of a disagreable taste something like tallow — the name I got from Mr Gunn & I believe he obtained it from Hooker but his (Gunns) information is very limited, he has I believe relinquished Botanical pursuits entirely for he can now get no one to collect for him & as he has hitherto been enjoying credit from the labors of others as well as my self the loss to science is not great

I do not know that I have any more at present to say & so my dear Sir

I remain

Yours faithfully

Charles Stuart

your

not listed in APNI (accessed 19 August 2019).

we have here — I have known it by Gunn's name — D. Menziesii!