Ferdinand von Mueller

The North Australia Exploring Expedition under Augustus Gregory returned to Sydney on 25 December 1856. M had undertaken a collecting expedition from Brisbane to the Glasshouse M ountains, north of that city, and did not accompany the main party to Sydney (Gregory (1858), pp. 134-5 ) . He arrived on 1 January 1857 ( Sydney morning herald, 2 January 1867, p. 4 ). He left for Melbourne on 10 January ( M to W. Hooker, 11 J anuary 1857 ) and returned to Sydney on 9 February ( Sydney morning herald , 9 February 1857, p. 4 ) . He returned to Melbourne permanently on 27 May 1857 (M to A. Gregory, 4 June 1857 ) .

It is probable that the letter to Sonder was written from Sydney in early January, and it is dated accordingly.

i.e. Sydney.

Of Plantae Muelleriana; Sonder enclosed MS for a short continuation, complained of his contributors being slow, and requested more reprints be provided. It is probable that the part for the Plantae Muelleriana e enclosed is Gottsche (1856), issued in August 1857 (TL2), as Sonder wrote ' Sie diesmal einige Abdrucke mehr anfertigen lassen wollten, da Dr. Gottsche davon abhaben will .' ['I would appreciate it if you would have a few more reprints made this time, as Dr Gottsche wants to have some']. Sonder (1856c) and Klatt (1856) were issued at the same time. In a post-script Klatt was identified as 'ein hiesiger Lehrer oder Besitzer einer Privatschule, den ich gerne in die system Botanik einführen möchte' ['a local teacher or owner of a private school whom I would like to introduce to systematic botany'].

This was a longstanding complaint. M had previously reported to others his discontent with Sonder 's preserv ing manuscript names as synonyms . F or example , in M to W. Hooker , 27 May 1854 , he wrote that he was 'disagreably surprised to see even such reappear in print, which I had long ago after a better acquaintance with the species abolished'. He continued to complain about the use of MS names as synonyms, including quoting them from Linnaea , but in the context of preparing Flora Australiensis Bentham responded : 'You caution me continually against publishing as synonyms catalogue names unaccompanied by diagnoses and I shall avoid it except where they have got within reach of Germans who seeing specimens with the names in Sonder's herbarium or referred to in the Linnaea are sure to take them up as "species neglectae" if not disposed of in some way' (G. Bentham to M, 8 October 1862). See Lucas (1995) for discussion of the general problems of nomenclature arising from M's inadequate herbarium and his collecting and labelling practices.

Later in Sonder's letter he defended the practice, although agreeing to comply with M's request. He was concerned about problems that purchasers of sets of M's plants would have or cause; indeed, the published series was as much a catalogue of the sale sets as it was a vehicle for descriptions or geographic range:

Sie werden indess mit mir einverstanden sein, dass es Dr. Müller gar nicht zum Schimpf gereicht, wenn er eine Pflanze für neu gehalten hat, die sich bei genauer Untersuchung als bekannt ergiebt. Kommen solche Synonyme nicht auch bei anderen Sammlungen vor, und hat der Verkäufer nicht auch Pflichten gegen seine Abnehmer? Ich glaube die Nichtanführung der Müller’schen Namen kann Confusion genug hervorrufen, wenn sie von dem Besitzer falsch bestimmt werden, der ohnehin unzufrieden damit sein wird, wenn er die Pflanzen nachbestimmen soll.

[You will agree with me, however, that it is no disgrace to Dr Mueller if he has considered a plant to be new which, on closer examination, turns out to be known. Don't such synonyms also occur in other collections, and doesn't the seller also have obligations towards his buyers? I believe that the failure to quote Müller's names can cause confusion enough if they are wrongly determined by the owner, who will be unhappy anyway if he has to re-determine the plants.]