The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Melbourne, 25/8/75. ¶ ¶ As you suggested, dear Mr Ramsay, I have written respecting vegetable fossils to Prof. ¶ ¶ Leversidge, ¶ Archibald Liversidge.Letter not found. ¶ ¶ to whom as Hon. Secr. of ...

Document information

Physical location:

ML MSS.562, Mitchell Library,State Library of New South Wales,Sydney. 75.08.25

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Edward Ramsay, 1875-08-25. 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/1870-9/1875/75-08-25-final.odt>, accessed June 9, 2026

Melbourne, 25/8/75.

As you suggested, dear Mr Ramsay, I have written respecting vegetable fossils to Prof. Leversidge,

Archibald Liversidge. Letter not found .

to whom as Hon. Secr. of your R. S. I had at the same time to express my gratitude for my election as Hon Memb. into that union, an honor, which I highly value.

See A. Liv er sidge to M, 4 August 1875.

The Macrozamia, named in Bull's Catalogue

William Bull (1828-1902), nurseryman in London; see his display advertisement 'New plants for 1874' in, for example, Gardeners' chronicle, 25 April 1874, p. 532.

M. plumosa is merely my M. Pauli Guilielmi, described by me in 1858 in the Fragmenta

B59.02.03, p. 86, see also B61.11.04, p. 179.

this has been pointed out also in the Gardeners Chronicle by Dr Masters very recently.

See 'New plants', Gardeners' chronicle, 22 May 1875, p. 652-653, which reprints as a footnote the description in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 251, and captions the illustration 'Macrozamia plumosa, Hort. Bull., (Paulo-guliemi?)', an error for 'Pauli Guilielmi'.

I never saw it with such long points to the fruitscales before. Perhaps the locality, from which you got this plant, is new. I should like to get male cones from that spot also. It was named after Prince Paul William, the brother of the King of Wuertemberg, who in 1858 visited Australia for ornithologic researches, which H.R.H. had carried on ever since the wars of the first Napoleon.

Mr Hartmann has sent me various palms from Towomba,

Carl Hartmann, Toowoomba, Qld.

but I believe none to be new. He sent Ptychosperma Alexandrae & P. Cunninghami.

P. cunninghamii ?

The true P. elegans (a very slender spec) I know only from Edgecombe Bay.

Edgecumbe Bay, Qld?

Ptychosperma was established by Labillardière in 1809 on a New Caledonian or Indian Palm, is therefore by one year in advance of Seaforthia of R Brown.

Labillardière (1809); R. Brown (1810), p. 267.

I was awaiting your new material from the North and then thought to go through the rest of my palms.

Mr Hartmann sent also Kentia monostachya from Towomba. Should you write to him, you might kindly ask him to forward me once more a flower spi[ke] leaf & some seeds of any of the species, about which yet doubt exists.

I am still most anxious for general collections of plants from any place in N. E. Australia.

Regardfully

Ferd. von Mueller

Kentia monostachya

Macrozamia Pauli Guilielmi

Macrozamia plumosa

Ptychosperma Alexandrae

Ptychosperma Cunninghami

Ptychosperma elegans

Seaforthia