Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1871-81, ff. 130-1. 73.12.01b

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker, 1873-12-01 [73.12.01b]. 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/1870-9/1873/73-12-01b-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

Melbourne
1/12//73
I was pleasingly surprised, dear Dr Hooker, when the last month's mail brought me the fascicle of the Bot Magazine, in which the (new) Phylidraceous plant was figured.
1
Philydrum glaberrimum in J. Hooker (1865-1904), vol. 99, t. 6056 (issued 1 September 1873). MS annotation, possibly by Hooker, on text page of Kew Gardens library copy: 'Helmholtzia'.
I had described it from dried specimens (not absolutely glabrous) in 1866 as
Helmholtzia acorifolia

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, in the 5th vol of the fragmenta, having had the advantage of studying the fruit also.
2
B66.12.04, pp. 202-3.
The dedication was to Prof Helmholtz of Heidelberg, the discoverer of the Opthalmoscop, who by his instrument gave such power to the work of Graefe, Bowman,
3
William Bowman.
Wells, Donders &c. It is not unlikely, that Mr Bull's
4
Although the text in Hooker's entry does not give details of 'Mr Bull' who supplied the specimen, he was almost certainly William Bull (1828-1902), nurseryman of Chelsea, England, with whom M exchanged seeds; see, for example, M to J. Grant, 14 September 1868, and M to J. Casey, 15 May 1873.
plant was raised from seeds, sent by me, because I am almost sure that I sent him seeds at the time, when this remarkable plant became known to me, good ripe and fresh seeds then being sent to many of my horticultural correspondents in Europe.
Since I last wrote, I have got the female plant of the restiaceous plant, peculiar to the Chatham Islands. It is now ascertained, that it belongs not to the capsular but to the nucular section of the order, standing in the same relation to
Leptocarpus

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as Lepyrodia to
Restio

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. It is therefore advisable to establish a genus on this plant, and this I have called
Sporadanthes

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.
5
Sporadanthus traversii was named (attributed to M as a new genus and new species) without description in Buchanan (1875), p. 340. Kirk (1878), p. xli, included a description: 'Sporadanthus traversii, F. Mueller, MS. Lepyrodia traversii, F. Muell.; Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae, VIII., p. 79', that is, a synonym of the species described by M in B73.08.01 where he commented that he did not have a female plant.
I have finished a new number of the fragmenta, but shall probably not have complete copies to send til next mail. It is entirely devoted to Grasses as will be the next,
6
B73.11.03; B73.12.01.
and I have reduced in it many Indian species to older ones of R Brown's prodromus
7
R. Brown (1810).
A little essay on the plants of the New Hebrides will perhaps interest you, so the continuation of my elucidation of our fossil fruits and an other supplementary contribution to the Flora of Tasmania
8
B73.13.01, New Hebrides; B73.11.01, fossils; the Tasmanian reference is probably to B74.13.05.
Pray give me your kind opinion on the genus
Macgregoria

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from Central Australia. My best specimens with full description were sent to you many months ago.
9
See notes to M to J. Hooker, 8 September 1873 (in this edition as 73-09-08a), for details of the repeated requests for confirmation of the generic status of this plant.
Always with regardful remembrance your
Ferd. von Mueller.