The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: 15/5/76. ¶ ¶ I thank you, dear Dr Hooker, for the ¶ support ¶ you have given me, by causing the despatches, concerning the new remedy against the Pemphigus or Phylloxera to be referred to me offici...

Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1871-81, f. 177. 76.05.15

Plant names

Cyperaceae
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Hypolythreae
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Junceae
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Pandaneae
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Scirpodendron
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker, 1876-05-15. 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/1870-9/1876/76-05-15-final.odt>, accessed June 9, 2026

MS black-edged; M's brother-in-law, Eduard Wehl, had died on 11 February 1876. MS annotation: 'And Jy 24'. Letter not found.

15/5/76.

I thank you, dear Dr Hooker, for the support you have given me, by causing the despatches, concerning the new remedy against the Pemphigus or Phylloxera to be referred to me officially.

In his letter to the Foreign Office of 9 February 1876, Hooker wrote 'I would suggest that … a copy [of this report] should be sent to the Colonial Office, for transmission to Baron von Mueller, the Government Botanist at Melbourne'. A copy of Hooker's letter and a translation of the salient points of the report (Académie des sciences. Commission du Phylloxera (1876)), was published by the Argus, 8 May 1876, p. 6.

This aid came opportune, as the estimates of the new financial year (commencing 1 July) are under consideration now; and if my position is not improved thereby, then the temporary ruin of my Department will become a permanent one!

This restoration of my position in a "becoming" manner, to use Asa Gray's expression — is becoming all the more difficult, as the very Ministry, which broke up and almost annihilated my Department, has thrown the colony into such enormous debt.

Will you kindly look on the enclosed . Of this genus of Kurz I have not the full literature, and if it really belongs to , then Boeckeler has missed it, altho’ surely specimens occur in the Berlin Collections.

Boeckeler (1868-77). M commented upon Boeckeler's treatment, including new synonyms, in B75.05.05, pp. 52-8.

I never saw flowers nor perfect leaves. At first sight the plant reminds of .

See B77.02.03, p. 104.

The species is known to me not only from the Sunda Islands and Samoa, but also from North Queensland. The embryo is rather that of than and the whole plant looks somewhat Palmlike. Kurz refers it to . Was it really not described by any former authors as the plant is so widely diffused —

MS annotation: ' , Zippelius = Pandanophyllum costatum, Thwaites.'

Gratefully your

Ferd von Mueller