Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'News and notes', Star (Ballarat), 28 February 1861, p. 2 (B61.02.04). The introduction reads as follows: 'Mr Stuart [i.e. John McDouall Stuart] in his journal speaks of a magnificent tree in the far north country, which sheltered himself, his party, and all the horses beneath its wide-spreading branches. He brought a few seeds to Adelaide, and we have had the pleasure of seeing a leaf from one of the young plants. It was received by our [Parliamentary] member, Mr Serjeant, from a relative of his in Adelaide, and was by him submitted to Messrs. Thomas Lang & Co., nurserymen here, who, however, were unacquainted with the plant. They got the opinion of our learned botanist, Dr. Mueller, of Melbourne, and we have much pleasure in giving the following extract from his letter to Messrs. Lang & Co.’ A final sentence concludes the item: ‘We may observe that the leaf referred to may be seen in Messrs Lang and Co’s seed shop.’

The reprint in the Gardeners' chronicle and agricultural gazette (B61.06.02) gives the source as the Melbourne observer, but a newspaper of that title in the relevant period has not been identified.

The leaf transmitted for my inspection proves that the famous umbrageous tree belongs to the genus Erythrina. I am of course not in a position to state whether the species is a new one, or any of the four of tropical Australia already known, the leaf being very young. In Stuart's botanical collection submitted to me I find only a leaf of the

Erythrina biloba

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, which I discovered in 1856 during Gregory's expedition.

2

North Australian Exploring Expedition, 1855-6.

I described it in Sir William Hooker's Journal, 1857, p. 21.

3

B57.01.01.

The species is said by Mr. Stuart to be frequent in Central Australia. We saw it only on one spot, where it formed but a small tree. More frequently we noticed the

Erythrina vespertilia

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4

Typesetter's error for vespertilio?

of Bentham (see Mitchell's Tropical Australia, p. 218),

5

Mitchell (1848).

but this never attained any great size, and I am therefore inclined to consider the magnitude of the particular individual tree alluded to by Mr. Stuart as an exceptional state, the effect of circumstances most favourable to the growth of the plant. The two other coral trees as yet known belong to Eastern Australia.