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RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1882-90, ff. 47-49. 83.01.29b

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Thiselton-Dyer, 1883-01-29 [83.01.29b]. 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/1880-9/1883/83-01-29b-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

29/1/83.
In continuation of former communications on
Cycadeae

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1
Most of M’s letters to W. Thiselton-Dyer in 1882 mention the supply of specimens or photographs of Macrozamia, Zamia or Cycas spp.
I wish to tell you, dear Mr Dyer, that I have at the Gov. photographic Office now a ripe female amentum of
Macrozamia Douglasii

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for you.
2
See A. McDowall to M, 17 January 1883.
An account of this species will appear in the february Number of the Melbourne "Chemist",
3
B83.02.01.
through which periodical I am endeavouring to inspire the now numberous Pharmac. Gentlemen all over Australia, to help in obtaining locally material for the completion of the Austr. "Flora".
4
For discussions of the proposal to supplement Flora australiensis, see Lucas (2003), pp. 272–4, and Clements (1998).
This Macrozamia, more even than M. Macdonnelli,
5
Macrozamia macdonnellii?
shows the real transit to
Encephalartos

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so far as the extreme abbreviation of its fruit-scales is concerned.
6
M described the species as
Encephalartos

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douglasii.
Anatomical differences in the stems I have not S. Afric material to trace out. You will get nuts &c when dry.
The hon. J. Thurston has now sent me also some detached male scales of
Cycas Seemanni

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,
7
See J. Thurston to M, 13 January 1883.
which if they are always of the same form show a great difference between them and those of C. [ci]rcinalis & C. Rumphii. These scales belong to the var. with globular nuts, and construct an amentum of 2 – 2½ feet length, but only 4 - 4½ inches width. Also this you will receive, as I have asked Mr Thurston for photographic purposes to send a complete ♂ cone.
I further asked him, to try to get the ♂ of the oval and larger fruited Cycas of Fiji, as that would lead to a crucial test for settling, whether one or two Cycas-species occur in the extensive Fiji-Group. My Papuan collections are for want of space not accessible this moment, as I must constantly make some shift or other, after being deprived of my house &c. When I can get at them, I will look up the
Cycas Papuana

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for you.
8
See W. Thiselton-Dyer to M, 24 November 1882.
Dr Beccari ought to have specimens also. After the rejunction of
Widdringtonia

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with
Callitris

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, the geographic separation of genera of Gymnosperms breaks down.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
You will see a puerily article on the Melb. bot. Garden in Hayters Yearbook for 1881-1882,
9
Victorian year-book for 1881-2, pp. 489-91.
probably written by the Curator.
10
William Guilfoyle.
A fine consolation to the poor selectors, to grow
Ricinus

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-seeds for lubrication-oil in competition of Indian labor at 2d or 3d a day!
11
The article reports, inter alia, that 'some sixty or more persons — farmers, selectors, and others throughout the colony — have been supplied with seeds of
Ricinus

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communis — the castor oil tree — and other useful plants, for the purpose of testing their value as remunerative crops.'
I gave
Ricinus

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-seeds away 30 years ago, to grow the plant for medicinal oil locally, and to have the leaves as a galactagogue. The German Missionary Rev. Mr Hagenauer obtained 20 years ago the roots of
Canna edulis

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from me ; and already years before the present Curator came here , the Natives of the Mission-Station of Mr Hagenauer prepared this kind of Arrow root by the ctws!
12
cwts (= hundredweights)? The article reported that 'a vast quantity of a variety of arrowroot,
Canna edulis

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… has been propagated and largely distributed. Some of the arrowroot manufactured from this plant is already in the market, having been prepared at the Ramahyuck Aboriginal Station, under the superintendence of the Rev. F. A. Hagenauer, as well as by other private enterprise.'
This is what is proverbially called here "hoodwinking the people."
When will the fourth vol. of the Flora Capensis
13
The second section of the fourth volume of Flora capensis, edited by W. Thiselton-Dyer as a continuation of Harvey & Sonder (1859-65), appeared in 1904; the first section was published in 1909 (Thiselton-Dyer (1896-1925)). Volume 6, the first continuation volume of Harvey & Sonder (Dyer) was published out of sequence in 1896-7 (See TL2, entry 2448).
be out?
We are now witnessing here under Dr Rudall's hands the wonderful effect of the seeds of
Abrus precatorius

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in ciliar Trichosis and for removing granulation without inoculation according to Dr de Weckers new method.
14
The final sentence is the only text on f. 49, and is included here as a possible enclosure to this letter. Rudall reported using Jequirity, a common name for Abrus precatorius, to a meeting of the Victorian Branch of the British Medical Association in 1883 (Argus, 26 May 1883, p. 5 col a); de Wecker had described its use in Annales d’oculistique, vol 88, p. 24.