Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M20, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 82.10.31

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ralph Tate to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1882-10-31. 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/1880-9/1882/82-10-31-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
Found with a specimen of Trymalium wayi (MEL 56164). Annotated: 'Answ 4/11/82 FvM'; see M to R. Tate, 4 November 188 (in this edition as 82-11-04a).
THE UNIVERSITY,
ADELAIDE.
Oct 31,1882
My Dear Baron
This enclosed which I had at first mistaken for a glaucous form of
Pomaderris racemosa

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proves on examination to be petaliferous From Bentham's description it would seem to be related to ledifolia or myrtilloides ,
2
Pomaderris is dealt with in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 1, pp. 416-23.
but I cannot satisfactorily place it in either.
3
M considered it to be a new species, Trymalium spatulifolium, recorded on M's label on MEL 56162, but he then had second thoughts about the appropriate epithet; see M to R. Tate, 9 November 1882. The species was published under the joint authority of M and Tate as T. wayae in B82.14.02, corrected to T. wayii in a Corrigendum in Transactions and proceedings and report of the Royal Society of South Australia, vol. 3 (1883), p. 109.
A lax shrub 8 - 10 feet high; by the river in the Gorge of the Onkaparinga 4 miles east from Noarlunga. Oct. 8. 82 (R.T)
4
This paragraph has slightly more detail than that recorded on Tate's label to a duplicate specimen on MEL 56162.
If unrecorded from South Australia insert name, reference & locality in the proof sheet of additions &c, &c, when you revise it; The proof has, however, not yet been received.
5
M had worked on the proofs of Tate (1882); see M to R. Tate, 20 September 1882 (in this edition as 82-09-20a).
Our University lectures are drawing near to a close, but I have seven or eight separate examination papers to draw up before I leave for the South East.
6
Tate and J. Ednie Brown travelled to the south-east of SA, arriving in Mt Gambier on 13 November 1882 (Border watch, 18 November 1882, p. 2); Tate was back in Adelaide in time for the meeting of the Royal Society of SA on 5 December (South Australian register, 6 December 1882, p. 7).
By the bye you are in doubt, Eucalyptographia 3rd decade, as to the occurrence of
Eucalyptus capitellata

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in S. Aust, westward of Lake Bonney.
7
B79.13.11: 'occurring westward at least as far as Lake Bonney'. The Lake Bonney referred to is that in the south-east of SA, south of Millicent, not the one near Barmera in the Riverland.
it is most certainly the common tree of the stringybark forest on the West slope of Mount Lofty, and the only stringy-bark I observed on the higher parts of the ranges 2 or 3 miles to the west of Seven Hills near Clare. It is about equal in stature to E. obliqua, but shows a disposition early to throw out lateral branches; of course the differences in fruit are trustworthy.
Yrs very truly
Ralph Tate
As leisure offers I am working through my South Australian herbarium, which numbers about 1000 species, and I have already discovered some discrepancies traceable to Tepper's plants of which I have a set—Of course I do not wish to imply that the errors of name are yours; but through them I have been frequently mislead. Thus in dealing with the Rhamnaceae , Tepper's
Cryptandra amara

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is C. spathulata . Some of my difficulties I will send you when you have more leisure than at present.