Ferdinand von Mueller

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Letter not found. The text given here is from '

Macrozamia Miquelii

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', Gardeners' chronicle, 23 April 1881, p. 538 (B81.04.01). The letter is dated to March 1881 as the latest it could have been written to have been printed in this issue. The text is introduced by

Mr. Charles Moore, director of the Botanic Garden of Sydney, sent to the New South Wales court of the International Exhibition of Melbourne two grand specimens of this Cycad (both bearing fruit) to add to the scenic features of the Exhibition by the display of living decorative plants.

The introductory text may have also been taken from M's letter.

This particular Macrozamia

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writes Baron von MÜLLER interpolated at this point.

has to some extent been misunderstood in former descriptions, when only fragmentary material in a dried state was available for definition. In M. Miquelii, as well pointed out by Mr. MOORE,

3

Moore’s remarks about the characteristics of the species are reported in the Leader (Melbourne), 12 March 1881, p. 8, in a text very similar to that given here. It is not clear whether M supplied notes to the paper's Horticultural Editor, William Elliott, or whether Elliott based his text on notes supplied by Moore and M then relied on this in his letter to the Gardeners’ chronicle.

the stem is nearly glabrous (as well as all other parts of the plant), the leaves are remarkably rigid, and in their young state almost straight, not twisted in the manner of those of M. spiralis, which species from that character took its name. The segments of the leaves of M. Miquelii are closely approximated, not very spreading, and decrease gradually in length, the lowest being reduced to mere teeth, while the petiole is very short, whereas in M. spiralis the leaves are long-stalked, the lowest segments (with the exception of a few odd teeth-like abbreviations) very long, and all much spreading; besides, the foliage is less rigid. Irrespective of this, the male amenta, and also the fruits, are not quite alike in both. M. Miquelii is a grander plant than M. spiralis, and seems confined to Queensland, while the last-mentioned species has been traced southward to near the boundaries of the colony of Victoria.