Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M51, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 77.05.27

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Charles Prentice to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1877-05-27. 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/1870-9/1877/77-05-27-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

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Letter found with a specimen of Enneapogon asperatus (MEL 2131670).
Brisbane
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Qld.
May 27. 1877
Dear Baron
But th[at] identification of species is too serious a matter for joking, I might have supposed that you were inclined to a practical mystification —
Pappophorum gracile

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& purpurascens I know well enough, but should not have thought of referring the plant you name P. Commune
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See B74.07.01, p. 200.
to the genus as the awns, thirteen in number are in no degree pappose or plumose but only serrulate, and I thought would have been referred by you to
Echinaria

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. However I am much obliged by your constant courtesy; was this species (your Commune) known to R. Brown; there is nothing like it in the Prodromus.
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R. Brown (1810).
A squatter from the Dawson,
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Dawson River, Qld.
brought down examples, (dry and flowerlets) which I take to be
Uraria lagopoides

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enclosed, as a plant which his sheep eat eagerly, their stomachs being found full of it exclusively, when slaughtered for food; also a Hoya which other sheep ate, and died poisoned by it. The leaves of H. australis which I have seen, were not so thick as the plant brought down, but I suppose neither H. H. carnosa or Nicholsoniae are found anywhere in such abundance as he represented this to be growing in; he had never seen flowers.
Yours very faithfully
Ch. Prentice.
P.S. I got a Townsville paper yesterday in which a person there was reported in a lecture delivered to have said th[at] you and others were inclined to suppose th[at] what is vulgarly called whalespawn in or
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our?
N. Eastern Seas is of vegetable origin; he cites me too erroneously, for I have little doubt th[at] it is composed of the putrescent exuviae of the Coral Polype; the 'whale spawn' of high northern latitudes is totally different, and clearly consisting of minute living organisms.
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An item from the Townsville Herald is reprinted in the Rockhampton bulletin , 25 May 1877, p. 2, reporting on a lecture by the Rev. W. Grey at the Townsville School of Arts on 16 May in which Grey reported having received opinions 'from Dr. Prentice of Brisbane, Baron Mueller of Melbourne, Professor Darwin, Professor Geike of Edinburgh and Dr J. C. Power of that University' on his previous lecture. The 'previous lecture' on 19 December 1876 was on 'Whale Spawn' ( Queenslander (Brisbane), 23 December 1876, p. 40). No letter from M to William Gray has been found.