Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M127, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 83.01.01d

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Benedetto Scortechini to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1883-01-01 [83.01.01d]. 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/1880-9/1883/83-01-01d-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
MS found with a specimen of Grevillea scortecinii spp scortechini (MEL 98955); M's label dated 1883 gives the taxon name as '
Grevillea ilicifolia

Search for Grevillea ilicifolia in

Br. var. Scortechini'. MS annotation by M: 'Answ 9/1/83'. Letter not found.
1st January 1883
Dear Baron
May this and many more years to come be full of happinness to you. I am glad to begin the new year, this early morning by writing to you. The letter will be accompanied by a parcel of 25 plants, most of which are new to Q-land.
2
Qld.
You shall be able to mark the new stations in your addenda to the census of all Australian species.
3
Presumably Scortechini knew or assumed that supplements would be produced to B83.03.04; no new Grevillea listings as Queensland species appeared until the fourth supplement, B89.05.03, p. 7.
Among these plants there is a Grevillea I have been unable to identify with any described one. I might have been too hasty in concluding it to be a new species. It has the aspect of G. laurina
4
Not in IPNI.
with the leaves of G. ilicifolia and repens . You will decide whether it is a new species, or new variety of one of these. Mr Bailey has got a set of all the plants I gathered in Stanthorpe
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Qld.
as there was a gentleman with me
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Henry Tryon? See F. Bailey to M, 19 May 1883 (in this edition as 83-05-19a).
who was likewise gathering plants, and who gave them to Mr Bailey. I do not know what he made of this Grevillea, and of all others. If he coincides in my opinion that it is new he will publish it as such at once some where.
7
See F. Bailey to M, 16 January 1883 (in this edition as 83-01-16a).
With many regards I remain
Your humble Servant
B Scortechini
8
What follows is on a separate slip of paper, also found with the specimen of Grevillea scortecinii spp scortechini (MEL 98955) and numbered by Scortechini, '395'. It may not be part of the same letter.
Grevillia n. sp?
Proteaceae
Stanthorpe
I am strongly inclined to take it as a new species between G. laurifolia of the Blue Mountains,
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NSW.
and your Victorian G. repens. Of both it has the prostate
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prostrate?
habit, gland, ovary, style and umbonate oblique stigmatic disk, and inflorescence. But in the shape and indumentum of the leaves it varies so much. I have no access to any specimens of G. repens, but from the description I can see to be very different, "sprinkled underneath with apressed hairs" Bentham says,
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Bentham (1863-78), vol. 5, p. 437.
whereas my specimens are closely silvery silky underneath. Then their geographical stations so far apart. No examination of the fruit has been made by me. You will find further discrepancies. It grows on granitic detritus