Ferdinand von Mueller

1

MS black-edged; M's sister Bertha Doughty died on 7 September 1861.

Melbourne bot. Garden

26./9/62

My dear Graf Decaisne

I feel extremely obliged for your courteous & prompt attention to the few fragments of Australian Cucurbitaceae, sent to you a short while ago & value the information from so authentic a source vey much. Pray express to M. Naudin also my thanks. I have recently received good specimens of Lagenaria vulgaris from the Fitzroy River. I regret that the larger parcel with Cucurbitaceae, sent to you about 2 years ago was lost. It contained better specimens than the last one.

2

See M to J. Decaisne, 16 May 1859 (in this edition as 59-05-16d), and M to J. Decaisne, 25 December 1861 (in this edition as 61-12-25c).

But when I travelled in tropical Australia

3

On the North Australian Exploring Expedition, 1855-6.

I could not always collect perfect specimens & saw them often only in an imperfect state; moreover unfortunately a whole case with specimens (& in it many Cucurbitaceous ones) was spoiled in the voyage from Arnhems Land to Sydney.

4

See M to A. Gregory, 6 April 1857, reporting damage to a package of plants by salt water incurred during the shipment from Victoria River of specimens collected on the first part of the North Australian Exploring Expedition.

In Kew however of most of the cucurbitaceous plants some good specimens are extant, the main collection, as belonging to the British Government having been deposited there. Cucumis jucunda & C. picrocarpa I have watched for a long time in North Australia, where they are not rare. I have never seen any intermediate forms! C. jucunda has small fruits always of sweetish taste which in travelling we constantly used for food when available. C. picrocarpa has always larger fruit s as bitter as C. colocynthis. In what relation both stand to C. pubescens W. can only be ascertained by reference to orginal specimens. Zehneria micrantha I have referred to Muckia (vide fragm. phyt. II, 180,

5

In B61.11.04, p. 180, M uses the orthographic variant used in this letter, but in his Systematic census, B89.12.03 , used the correct Mukia .

) as it has free anthers. It fruits are always much larger than those of Muckia scabrella, altho' occasionally ovate; the fruit of Muckia scabrella I found always beautifully red (coccineus) that of Muckia micrantha is yellowish - green .

In comparing Ceylon specimens of Trichosanthes cucumerina with T. olida, I am inclined to regard them identical

I trust that the Cases pr Moravian will reach you in safety and that I shall be able to follow up these transmissions to your Museum regularly