The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ [A ¶ question ¶ has arisen whether there are other species of Figs which send down adventitious roots in a similar manner to those known as Banyan trees, found in India and elsewhere, and which b...

Document information

Physical location:

77.00.00

Plant names

Ficus australis
Search for Ficus australis in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Ficus columnaris
Search for Ficus columnaris in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Ficus macrophylla
Search for Ficus macrophylla in
Ficus rubiginosa
Search for Ficus rubiginosa in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bennett, 1877. 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/1870-9/1877/77-00-00-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

The correspondent is George Bennett, d. 1893. Letter not found. For the text quoted here see Bennett (1877), p. 105. The letter is dated to 1877, on the assumption that Bennett would have written his piece for the Gardeners' chronicle issue of 28 July 1877 soon after M wrote to him and called his attention to a local Fig. It is however odd that M asked about ' ' when he had already, in B68.06.03, p. 194, treated this as a synonym of his preferred F. rubiginosa. It is possible that M posed his question considerably earlier, perhaps associated with the picture, captioned F. rubiginosa, that he received with G. Bennett to M, 16 June 1874 (in this edition as 74-06-16a); yet if so, it is difficult to understand why, so long afterwards, Bennett would have quoted him in the way he did.

[A question has arisen whether there are other species of Figs which send down adventitious roots in a similar manner to those known as Banyan trees, found in India and elsewhere, and which become gradually elongated, increasing in firmness and strength, until reaching the ground they take a firm root, and become distinct trunks or supports to the parent tree. Baron von Mueller, of Melbourne, directed my attention to this fact by inquiring if I had observed this peculiarity of growth in the common New South Wales Fig, or rubiginosa. It has, however, often been seen in the Moreton Bay Fig ( ), Baron von Mueller says:— “Is there any state of the in Illawarra or elsewhere in New South Wales producing a Banyan-like growth such as occurs in the of Howe’s Island?”

Lord Howe Island.

]