The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Melbourne ¶ 29/9/77. ¶ ¶ You were quite right, dear Mr Bailey, in referring your little Orchid to Bolbophyll. ¶ lichenastrum. It is a much larger form than the one I described; its leaves are twice ...

Document information

Physical location:

ML MSS B202, Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales, Sydney 77.09.29

Plant names

Atherosperma micranthum
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Atherosperma repandulum
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Bolbophyllum lichenastrum
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Helmholtzia
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Frederick Bailey, 1877-09-29. 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/1870-9/1877/77-09-29-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

Melbourne

29/9/77.

You were quite right, dear Mr Bailey, in referring your little Orchid to Bolbophyll.

Bolbophyllum.

lichenastrum. It is a much larger form than the one I described; its leaves are twice or thrice longer. Your thoughtful notes enable me to complete the description.

Original description based on Dallachy's specimen (MEL 544728) in B69.10.01, p. 60; the additional description using Bailey's specimen is in 'Additamenta', B77.13.08, p. 119.

Dallachys plant from Rocks,

Dallachy's label with MEL 544728, collected at Seaview Range near Rockingham Bay, notes that it was 'so firmly attached to the stones or rocks that I could hardly get it off'.

according to his specimens had the leaves so closely set, as to resemble a lichenlike crust.

In the number of the Fragm., now in print, I described your Atherosperma as A repandulum.

B77.10.02, p. 105, based on MEL 3181 (Dallachy collection, 10 May 1868) and MEL 3182 (Bailey collection, 1877).

I had it also from Dallachy and named it 10 years ago, but have waited with publishing the species until I saw more specimens. It is very near A. micranthum, but, so far as I can judge from the material before me, it seems really distinct

Regardfully

Ferd von Mueller.

Please give the enclosed introduction-letter to Dr Bancroft.

Letter not found. Dr Joseph Bancroft visited Europe in 1877-8 and while there discussed his work on Pituri and provided specimens for analysis (Bancroft (1879), p. 3).

Let the Doctor take to Berlin a living plant of the .

M had erected the genus (H. acorifolia), based on Dallachy's specimen collected on 16 November 1868 (MEL 3439), in honour of the Berlin physicist and physiologist Hermann (von) Helmholtz in B66.12.04, pp. 202-3. See also J. Dallachy to M, 26 January 1870 (in this edition as 70-01-26a).