Document information

Physical location:

University of Florence, Science Library: Botany, Archives, Beccari 12/32 78.06.01a

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Odoardo Beccari, 1878-06-01 [78.06.01a]. 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/1870-9/1878/78-06-01a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1/6/78
It was very pleasing to me, dear Dr Beccari, to get your kind letter from Singapore, dated 19. April.
1
Letter not found.
Let me hope, that you will find your position in Florence amidst your riches & treasures, congenial to your tastes! What a path of glory have you before you! As regards Signor D'Albertis's plants,
2
Luigi Maria d'Albertis.
I shall of course be grateful for any, which you can spare me.
I met D'Albertis here for two days, which was a source of great pleasure to me. He left a few living plants, which will likely come under my cognizance, when in flower.
Australia is almost exhausted, so far as new plants are concerned. Hence I must rely on New Guinea or some other part of the globe for novelties.
It is quite likely, that I mistook a
Platea

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for a
Lasianthera

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or
Gomphandra

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, as I had not the benefit of using your excellent memoir on
Olacineae

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, when I worked out the only Australian species as yet known. I will send you a specimen.
3
M did not publish a
Platea

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. In B76.12.03, p. 53, he identified a specimen collected by Luigi Maria D'Albertis at the Fly River in Papua as Miquel's
Lasianthera

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litoralis, but Beccari (1877-90), vol. 1, p. 257 synonymized it as
Platea

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papuana.
Pray remember me kindly to the friendly Capt. D'Albertis,
4
Luigi Maria d'Albertis was travelling from Sydney to London and visited M during the period the SS Garonne was in Melbourne— from 7 May, until it 'cleared out' on 10 May (Argus, 8 May 1878, p. 4; 11 May 1878, p. 6).
and give also my compliments to Dr Scheffer, from whom I have not heard for a very long time,
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R. Scheffer to M, .25 October 1877.
though I believe, that he is in frequent communication with the Nurseryman at the bot. Garden.
6
William Guilfoyle.
I like very much to obtain Bamboo- seeds of any kind in quantity fit for germination, and could send
Eucalyptus

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seeds in exchange.
I am making grand efforts to restore my Directorship and to place the Gardener on the parks & Reserves.
With regardful remembrance, dear Dr Beccari,
your obliged
Ferd. von Mueller.