Document information
Physical location:
Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide, SA. 82.11.09Preferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to Ralph Tate, 1882-11-09. 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/1880-9/1882/82-11-09-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026
9/11/82
Thanks for your letter, dear Prof. Tate, written last Friday.
I had occasion to pass a trifle through the press for Wing's journal,
and inserted the Dendrobium from Mr Foelsche also; but that does not hinder you to
place the plant also before your R.S., as it is a species (or var) of your northern
territory. After looking on living plants of D. canaliculatum in the conservatory
of Mr Arthur King here, I allotted to this form from Arnhems Land
with reluctance specific rank.
1
i.e. 3 November 1882. Letter not found.
2
i.e.
Southern science record. See B82.10.04.
3
NT.
The Trymalium will have interested you — after sending the manuscript as T. spatulifolium,
I came to think, that it might clash with Spyridium spatulatum, whenever and wherever this plant may be inserted into Cryptandra. You can therefore change
the specific name as you deem best fit.
I am very eager indeed to send more msc. for your new volume, but am much pressed
with work, to finish the Census
by December. After
that
my hands will be freer. Mr Morris has not interested himself for me in any way, though
a close neighbour, and seems rather to incline to the Gentleman in the Garden.
4
See R. Tate to M, 31 October 1882, and M to R. Tate, 4 November 1882
(in this edition as 82-11-04a). This name appears on M's label on MEL 56162.
5
The species was published as
T. wayae
under the joint authority of M and Tate 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. See also M to R. Tate, 16 November 1882.
6
B83.03.04.
7
not interested … Garden
is bracketed and marked
Private
by M.
'
Mr
Morris'
is
E. E. Morris,
who had
been
headmaster at the Melbourne Church of England
G
rammar
S
chool which was situated close to M
's
herbarium and not far from his residence
.
In his letter of 3 November
,
Tate had presumably ask
ed
M what he knew of Morris, who
had been
elected
Professor of English
Language and Literature at the University of Adelaide
that day
, to commence duty in January 1883
(
South Australian advertiser
, 6 November
1882
,
p. 6). Morris d
i
d not take up th
e Adelaide
post,
later in November
accept
ing
an invitation to fill the
equivalent
post at the University of Melbourne.
The 'Gentleman in the Garden' is W. Guilfoyle.
I may some day ask you for the loan of
Mr
Fitzgerald's type specimens,
but could not attend to any critical work just now. — You have the true Thelymitra
carnea also in S.A.
8
Presumably the new South Australian orchid species described in R. Fitzgerald (1882),
pp. 462, 495.
The proof will not be delayed here.
Wishing you and Mr Brown a pleasant voyage and grand success,
I remain regardfully your
9
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).
Ferd von Mueller
Cryptandra
Dendrobium canaliculatum
Spyridium spatulatum
Thelymitra carnea
Trymalium spatulifolium