Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M5, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 83.10.25b

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Frederick Bailey to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1883-10-25 [83.10.25b]. 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/1880-9/1883/83-10-25b-final.odt>, accessed June 5, 2026

1
MS found with a specimen of
Macrozamia Moorei

Search for Macrozamia Moorei in

(MEL 305084). ). In Bailey's register of letters despatched, what appears to be this item—the subject-matter being given as '3 sp Eucalypts Macrozam.'—is dated 26 October 1883 (In and out letter and packet book, letter register, Colonial Botanist, book one, 1879-1894, Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane).
Queensland Museum.
Brisbane Oct 25 188 3
Dear Baron Mueller
I send packet containing Macrozamia & Gum Seeds Note on the Macrozamias inclosed. The seeds are some I had collected but they are as you will see not very good I have spoken to a person to try to get some Moreton Bay ash E tessellaris for you and shall be always glad to send any Eucalypts or other tree seeds to you as I receive them. I have not a seedling to send or would do so. I don't like Moores paper
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C. Moore (1884a); the paper was read at a meeting of the Royal Society of NSW on 5 September 1883, and evidently distributed as a pre-print soon after.
so feel glad you had nothing to do with it This is a difficult Genus (the Macrozam.) and only one like yourself should touch it is my idea.
The Macrozamia I last sent I received from the Springsure District
3
Qld.
but some distance from those plants you have named M. Moorei — but I look upon it as only a stunted plant of it all belong to the same I enclosed young plants, leaf […] and scales & nuts with the core stalk
In haste your
F M Bailey
4
The following passage is on a separate scrap of paper and may not have been part of the same letter.
I like you to have all material of Macrozam so send it as under.
I have just received this specimen from Mount Perry, by the inflorescence I would think it M. Paulo-Guliemi
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Paulo-Gulielmi?
but the leaf is certainly that of the species called M. Douglasii which by the bye is nothing in my opinion but a form of M. Fraseri Miq. The sender of the specimen to me from Mount Perry says "No 162 male & female cones, nuts, young shoot & portion of leaf enclosed stem all all
6
Word repeated.
under ground leaves 3 to 4 ft. often 5 ft. long male cones 6 to 9 ins. female cones 6 to 14 in. (usually about 8 to 10 in.) long nuts bright orange when ripe cannot indentify it with any of the five Macrozam in your Synopsis of Queensland Plants
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Bailey (1883), pp. 500-1.
I should perhaps mention that the underground stem is from 12 to 15 in. long and where thickest about 10 in. in diameter root spindle-shaped — the whole underground portion is something of this outline
8
Sketch inserted at this point:
This outline is just like that of our common one which I take for M. Paulo-Gulielmi.
FMB
9
The following passage is on the inside of an envelope addressed to Bailey that he has reused, and may not be part of the same letter. The Post Office imprint on the envelope is dated 21 October 1883.
I have had this by me for over a year in the hopes of the person who gave to me bring a male cone & leaf or two from the same place it makes a large plant with a hundred or more leaves — I have just gone to the Gardens and asked Pink as he was sending a box to Melbourne to pack up a leaf or so and a female cone off the plant of this species in the Gardens and inclose in the box asking the person to send them to you. I have always called it M. Miqueli but it will help your work to have it
FMB