Ferdinand von Mueller

1

MS found with a specimen of Cyathea cooperi (MEL 2148770). Though the valediction and signature are missing, the writing matches that in other letters that Woolls wrote to M.

Parramatta

2

NSW. All place names mentioned are in NSW.

Oct 21 /70

My dear doctor,

I have ascertained at last that Mr Woof, the gardener of Mr Prince, has a living specimen of the so called Alsophila Cooperi , & I send two fronds of it. Mr Gelding says that he was with Sir D. Cooper & Mr Moore when it was first discovered, & that in his opinion, it is quite distinct from A. Leichardtiana . The trunk & leaf stalks, he says, are identical with those of A. ex celsa . It has not any thorns, & the only similarity between it & A. Leichardtiana is in the roughness of its pinnae. In fact, he continues, at first sight, one would take it for A. excelsa . It is apparently rare, for during two days wandering in the gullies at Illawarra, they met with it only in one spot about a mile on the Sydney side of Bellambi, where it was obtained chiefly growing on fallen & decaying trunks of Seaforthia . Mr Fitzgerald tells me that Woof exhibited this fern at the Show

3

Spring exhibition of the Horticultural Society of New South Wales. Sydney mail, 22 October 1870, p. 3, mentions Woof's exhibiting a collection of ferns, but does not name all species included.

the day before yesterday, & that in his opinion, it is intermediate between A. excelsa & A. australis . The stem, he adds, is woolly."

4

There is no opening set of quotation marks.

From looking at the specimen, it certainly appears to me different from any species that I know.

I am afraid I cannot give you any information respecting the northern Doryanthes , and I believe that the plant figured by Miss Scott is D. excelsa (See Dr Bennett's Wandering of a Naturalist p. 341

5

i.e. Bennett's Gatherings of a naturalist (G. Bennett (1860)); the illustration of 'Gigantic lily | (Doranthes excelsa)', lithographed by Walter Fitch, is between pp. 340 and 341, and the plant is discussed on pp. 339-40.

). It used to be very abundant at Illawarra. It occurs near George's River & also near Appin (See Dr B's book p. 339), & near the Lower Hawkesbury.

6

Hawkesbury River, NSW.

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7

An unknown amount of text missing; text ends at the bottom of the page, without valediction.