Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M5, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 74.00.00e

Preferred Citation:

Frederick Bailey to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1874 [74.00.00e]. 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/1870-9/1874/74-00-00e-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
MS is on two pieces of paper found with a specimen of Senna magnifolia (MEL 1061235), the date of collection of which is unrecorded. The first sheet is annotated by M: 'Cassia magnifolis F.v.M.' The second sheet commences 'I made this plant out'. A smaller third sheet carries the sketch of the plant:
Bailey was communicating with M by 1874, the year in which Bailey was appointed to prepare a Queensland Herbarium (see report of the Queensland Acclimatisation Society, Telegraph (Brisbane), 6 March 1875, p. 5); the first fully dated letter found is F. Bailey to M, 1 January 1875, and it mentions assistance from M before that. (Bailey's earliest dated specimen at MEL, however, filed as  Eucalyptus pruinosa (MEL 1614037), is dated to 3 September 1869.) The item is therefore dated to 1874 as the earliest likely date it would have been written.
Peduncles 2 ft erect the flowering parts above the top leaves of plant Plant 4 ft or a little more high I send you the top of a leaf on which there were ten more pinnae leaf more than 2 ft long
In haste
FMB
I made this plant out from a leaf sent to Mr Bernays and now it is flowering in Bowen Park
2
The property of the Acclimatisation Society of Queensland in Brisbane.
raised from seed Mr B. received I believe at the same time
3
At bottom right of sheet, separated from the remainder of the text by a line, Bailey has written ‘top of leaf’.
FMB
please to notice the bracteoles
FMB