The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ In the future, the regions of shrubby Eucalypts in the desert should not be called Eucalyptus dumosa. In the course of my research it has been found that E. dumosa is only a variety of the earlier ...

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80.03.00d

Plant names

Acacia aneura
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Eucalyptus dumosa
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Eucalyptus gracilis
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Eucalyptus incrassata
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Eucalyptus oleoso
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Eucalyptus uncinata
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Ernst Behm, 1880-03 [80.03.00d]. 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/80-03-00d>, accessed September 11, 2025

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Geographischer Monatsbericht: Australien' [Geographical monthly report: Australia], Petermann's Mittheilungen aus Justus Perthes' Geographischer Anstalt, vol. 26, p. 236, in the issue for May 1880 (B80.05.02). It is introduced by 'In australischen Publikationen begegnet man sehr häufig den Ausdrücken Mallee- und Mulga-scrub. Darauf bezüglich schreibt uns der berühmte australische Botaniker Baron F. v. Mueller:' [In Australian publications one often encounters the expressions Mallee scrub and Mulga scrub. Regarding this, the famous Australian botanist Baron F. v. Mueller writes:] The letter, which would have been addressed to Behm as editor of the journal, is dated to March 1880 as the latest likely date that it could have been written to appear in this issue.

In Zukunft sollten die Regionen der strauchigen Eucalypten der Wüste nicht mit dem Namen bezeichnet werden. Im Verlauf meiner Forschungen hat es sich nämlich ergben, das E. dumosa nur eine Varietät von der früher beschriebenen E. incrassata ist; dazu kommt noch, das letzgenannte Art (mit Einschluss von E. dumosa) nicht die einzige ist, welche den sogenannten Mallee-Scrub liefert, sondern dass E. oleoso,

Typesetter's error for E. oleosa?

E. gracilis, E. uncinata und noch andere Arten oft mit E. incrassata gemischt sind und selbst manchmal über letztere vorherrschen. Man könnte mit demselben Rechte Aciacia aneura als die einzige Art des Mulga-Scrub bezeichnen, während doch gewöhnlich andere Acacien mit jener in die Mulga-Gestrüppe zahlreich eingemischt sind.

In the future, the regions of shrubby Eucalypts in the desert should not be called . In the course of my research it has been found that E. dumosa is only a variety of the earlier described E. incrassata.

See decade 5 of Eucalyptographia (B80.13.14), which was published in time to have been reviewed in Sydney morning herald , 23 March 1880, p. 7, consistent with the suggested dating above.

In addition, the latter species (including E. dumosa) is not the only one that provides the so-called Mallee scrub, but E. oleoso, E. gracilis, E. uncinata and still other species are often mixed with E. incrassata and sometimes even prevail over the latter. could equally well be described as the only species of Mulga scrub, while other Acacias are usually interspersed with those in the Mulga scrub.