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79.07.17a

Plant names

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Ferdinand von Mueller to Malcolm Fraser, 1879-07-17 [79.07.17a]. 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/1870-9/1879/79-07-17a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'New indigenous plants', Inquirer and commercial news (Perth), 3 September 1879, Inquirer p. 2 (B79.09.10). It is introduced by
Baron von Mueller, in acknowledging the receipt of some botanical specimens collected by Mr. Alex. Forrest's exploring expedition, between Roebourne and Beagle Bay, writes, under date July 17, to the Hon. M. Fraser (Commissioner of Crown Lands), who has courteously placed the Baron's letter at our disposal:—.
The plants prove of great interest to extend our knowledge of the geographic range traversed by some species through your tropical territory. After careful examination of the whole material, I will prepare a full list of these plants; and, as Mr. Alexander Forrest is likely to add to the collections on his way to Port Darwin, a great additional gain is likely to he obtained from this new expedition, as well for botanic science as a fuller insight into the natural vegetable products of your intra-tropic regions. It is of interest now to notice that the splendid blue waterlily comes as far south as Beagle Bay ( Nymphaea caerulea , Savigny), and doubtless it might be naturalized as far South as Champion Bay, in any ponds or permanent lagoons. Dr. Leichhardt's leguminous Ironbark tree (
Erythrophleum Laboucherii

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, F. v. M.) we had also previously not so far south as the DeGrey River, and in a similar manner the new localities of
Spathodea heterophylla

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(R. Br.),
Premna acuminata

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(R. Br.),
Desmodium biarticulatum

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(F. v. M.),
Drosera petiolaris

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(Banks),
Melochia corchorifolia

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(L.),
Byblis liniflora

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(Salisbs.),
Tinospora smilacina

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(Benth.),
Fuirena umbellata

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(Rottb.), are notable; Zygophyllum we had never yet so far north represented in Australia as Lagrange Bay;
Tacca pinnatifida

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(Forst.), now also from Beagle Bay, is known to yield an excellent arrowroot;
Cymbidium canaliculatum

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(R. Br.) seems now for the first time noticed within the limits of West Australia, from whence no epiphytal orchids were known. The Palm to which Mr. Alexander Forrest refers is a Pandanus (of the order of so-called screw-pines), P. odoratissimus (L.), which we had from King's Sound before. The gem of the present collection, though only represented by a solitary leaf, is a species of
Begoniae

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,
2
Typesetters' error for Begonia?
which genus was hitherto utterly unknown from Australia; so that now an additional order of plants (
Begoniaceae

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) is shown to exist in the fifth continent.
3
M may have later sent this leaf to Kew: see M to J. Hooker, 29 January 1883 (in this edition as 83-01-29a).
This discovery does not come very unexpectedly, as one
Begoniae

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is known from Timor, and several are on record from the Sunda Islands and New Guinea; but I had hitherto looked in vain for the genus, or even the order, in Northern Queensland. It is very creditable to the explorers that they have devoted also some attention to the vegetation while carrying on their geographic work. In all likelihood we shall thus now also soon learn what fern-tree it is which occurs near Camden Harbour, and what particular species of bamboo attains such a great highth
4
height?
in south-western Arnhem's Land. If these hurried lines are of any particular interest, you are quite at liberty to render them public as preliminary to fuller subsequent notices of these N. W. plants.
5
See B81.13.04. Some new species from the expedition were described elsewhere, for example Tephrosia forrestiana in B80.08.03, p. 98, and Jacksonia forrestii, in B87.08.01, p. 194.