The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Newyearseve ¶ 1866-67. ¶ ¶ I send a few lines as a late salutation to the new year. The last mail has taken to you lots of Orchid tubers & this one brings the rest. Why cannot these lovely plants be ...

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Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, ff. 250-1. 66.12.31a

Plant names

Algae
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Anthisthiria australis
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Anthisthiria avenacea
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Anthisthiria ciliata
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Anthisthiria glauca
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Fungi
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Gramineae
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Helmholtzia
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Lichen
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Lichenastra
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Musci
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Panicum Munroi
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Pithecolobium
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to [Joseph Hooker], 1866-12-31 [66.12.31a]. 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/1860-9/1866/66-12-31a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

Correspondent inferred from reference to sending Orchid tubers; see M to J. Hooker, 25 December 1866 (in this edition as 66-12-25d).

Newyearseve

1866-67.

I send a few lines as a late salutation to the new year. The last mail has taken to you lots of Orchid tubers & this one brings the rest. Why cannot these lovely plants be brought regularly under cultivation. How interesting a collection of terrestrial Orchids would be if comprising species from all parts of the globe.

Anthisth[i]ria australis is, as you surmised, A. ciliata & to it also belongs A. glauca of the Mediterranean! The main character has been overlooked namely its 3 valvate or rather its 3 sepalate flowers. A avenacea has 4 sepals.

I mistook a wrong grass for the Panicum alluded to by Colonel Munro & described now his grass as P. Munroi.

B66.12.04, p. 204.

Still it seems to me foreign to the genus. I had just to examine some grasses for the Exhibition

Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne, 1866-7.

& thus plunged for a day or two into & thus also it often happens, that my varied official calls draw my attention at a sudden moment to plants on which I otherwise should not work at the time. You will probably find it just so at Kew, unless there you can allot such work to subordinates

Mr Bentham cuts the genera down unmercifully. I fear our great phytographer goes too far. Pray tell him, that poor Mr Tozer, who discovered the & met at the occasion with such severe accident by the fall of his horse is dead.

See M to G. Bentham, undated 1863 letter (in this edition as 63-07-00a).

I had just a touching letter from his widow.

Letter not found.

— Should not arrangements be made for the Cryptogamic workers on the flora Austr. at once? It is true poor Harveys may be simply translated as no important additions have been obtained But , astra, s & require special new work, and this much is certain, such a cryptogamic volume could not be finished so speedily as a phanerogamic one. To the genus I must direct your special attention.

The letter ends without valediction at the bottom of the back of f. 151 as bound (letter is bound back to front).