Ferdinand von Mueller

Sydney Aug. 6th. 1883.

My dear Baron,

I send you a plant sent to me from Warrah Liverpool Plains

1

NSW.

with a request that I would name it. If not too much trouble would you kindly let me know whether it is not Indigofera brevidens or coronillaefolia — the description of the latter of which in the Flora

2

Bentham (1863-78), vol. 2, p. 201.

is not very definite. I am not able to send you the fruit as I would have wished. — In your Botanical Teachings

3

B77.08.01, p. 34.

I observed that there is some doubt about the origin of the word "She Oak" the popular name for

Casuarina

Search for Casuarina in

• This website
• VicFlora
• Australian Plant Name Index

. Sitting under one of these trees (that with pendulous foliage) many years ago among the Blue Mountains and listening to wail of the breeze through the tree it occurred to me that the name was a corruption of "Chiook" — an Onamatopoeia coined by the Australian Aboriginals from the sound abovementioned, — or in other words that the name was coined on what Max Müller calls contemptuously the new word theory.

4

M. Müller (1861), pp. 344ff.

I offer my derivation for your kindly consideration — We are sadly in want in N. S. Wales of a Book of Botanical Teachings with N. S. Wales Illustrations. I have been more than once asked for such a Book by friends in the Bush who wish to learn something of their Vegetable World and cannot get on because the

5

they?

want this means of recognizing a few Species to start with and thence to extend their studies. — Apologising for trespassing on your valuable time and hoping you are in the enjoyment of good health I remain

Baron F. v. Müller.