Document information

Physical location:

57.11.00a

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Woolls, 1857-11 [57.11.00a]. 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/1850-9/1857/57-11-00a-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
Letter not found. For the text given here, see Sydney morning herald, 27 November 1857, p. 2. In a letter to the Editor dated 25 November 1857, William Woolls wrote: ‘In my letter on the Asteraceae of the district, I alluded to two genera, viz.,
Eupatorium

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and Erigeron, as being common in this neighbourhood. In making the statement, I relied upon certain coloured drawings in the possession of the Rev. R. L. King, which were said to have been marked in pencil by the late Allan Cunningham. Having forwarded a copy of my letter to Dr. F. Mueller, Government Botanist, at Melbourne, I received a very kind communication from that gentleman, in which he expressed some doubt as to the plants in question, and requested me to send him some specimens of them for examination. This I did forthwith...’. Woolls’s letter then continued as above.
[... and by the last mail I had the pleasure to receive a letter from the Doctor, in which he stated that the flower referred to
Eupatorium

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is
Vernonia cynopioides

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(Walpers)
2
Vernonia cyanopioides ?
, and that
Erigeron trifurcatum

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3
Erigeron trifurcata ?
is
Vittadinia triloba

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(De Candolle). The first of these Dr. Mueller found rather common during Mr. Gregory’s expedition in East and North Australia, but he adds that the genus is not represented in Australia Felix, New Zealand, Tasmania, or South and West Australia as far as known. V. triloba, (D. C.), he says, is one of the most common and polymorphous plants.]
4
Woolls continued his letter to the Editor: ‘As these composites grow plentifully in the neighbourhood of Parramatta, it is satisfactory to know their proper position in the vegetable kingdom, and I feel indebted to Dr. Mueller for clearing up the little inaccuracy which has prevailed respecting them.’