Ballina,
June 5th 1881
Dear Baron,
I wrote to you few days ago
from this place acquainting you as I sent you from here a case containing fungus,
mosses, Algae, etc, and also some specimens from a Alsophylla
that I found here, which in my opinion was different in many characteristics from
A. australis & A. Leichhardtiana, the only ones that habitat in all that great extension
of country lying between, some distance from the head of the navigation of the Richmond
& the boundary of Queensland, but which I have never met with in any other place about
the said water-way.
Now I write to you this solely to give you some particulars with reference to that,
strange to me, Alsophylla, which I could not send to you at the time that I forwarded
the specimens.
I have found a patch of the said plant in a secluded spot about a mile from the ocean,
and I am under the impression that it is neither A. australis, or Leichhardtiana,
unless it may be a
form
of the last. A. australis I have always observed in every part of Australia with
a stout caudex & many fructification fronds, but the one which specimens I sent to
you, notwithstanding its growing in a humid & rich soil & well sheltered by large
trees & vines, has a trunk comparatively slender & hardly any fructification fronds
are seen in a grove of hundreds old plants; also, I think, the sporangia of the two
species is different. Moreover, the base stipes of my specimen are of a distinct colour,
exceedingly covered with hair & much less prickly. The only character on which agree
this A. & A. australis is being clothed with the base of the old stipes, but even
in this peculiarity the A. that I have found here [surpasses] the A. australis. Taken
in comparison with A. Leichhardtiana, in a general point of view, there are many affinities
between the two, but considered in details the caudex & stipes of my A. are more stout
that the other, the base of these less prickly, & more covered with long, thick hair;
& on the colour of this offer a great contrast: that of A. Leichhardtiana being rather
whitish while the other is deep brown-reddish. As much as my memory helps me there
is a
notable
difference between the two sporangia. Another circumstance worth of notice is that
A. australis, to my knowledge only is found very sparingly scattered on the forest
of
,
, &
, situated between the Richmond & Tweed Rivers, & the habitat of A. Leichhardtiana
further northward near & on the last-named river, growing in more or less thick patches,
& always in the brush forest, where the soil is rich; & I have seen it plentifull
& of full height in very elevated situations.
The tallest specimen of this sp. of A. that I have sent you samples of stipes & pinnae
with & without fructification, is from 12 to 14 feet.
I submit to you, Dear Baron, all these considerations & I shall be under obligation
to you if you would inform me in a convenient opportunity the results of your examination
of the specimen that previous to this I have sent to you
I am sincerely & respectfully yours
A. Camara
