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Gray Herbarium Archives, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. 84.02.20

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Asa Gray, 1884-02-20. 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/1880-9/1884/84-02-20-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

20/2/84.
Let me thank you, dear Prof. Gray, for your lucid remarks on D.C's last publication concerning nomenclature.
1
A. Gray (1883), commenting on A. de Candolle (1883).
I had written some notes for the bot. Centralblatt
2
B84.04.05.
soon after receiving the work from M. Alph. de Candolle himself. I may be induced to write still further on the subject; but on this occasion I would merely remark, that I agree with you on nearly all points. You have however overlooked one important moment in regard to the special case of
Stylidium

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,
Marlea

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and
Candollea

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; it is this:
Hibbertia

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absorbs
Candollea

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; so we would still need a genus for the great name of D.C., and where is the fixity without priority?
Stylidium

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is for this a good instance to point to.
Let me hope, that in serenity of mind and firm health you continue your great labors.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
I have only Rays method in the second edition,
3
Ray (1703). The copy at the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, which was presumably M's though it bears no marks of his ownership, is of the 1710 Amsterdam reprinting of this edition.
but on enquiry in Europe I was told, that he already in the first (1682) used the terms Di- and
Monocotyledonae

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.
4
See M to B. Daydon Jackson, 25 December 1881 and M to B. Daydon Jackson, 22 November 1882 (in this edition as 82-11-22b).
Hence I put them that way in the "Census".
5
B83.03.04.
Could you not give us a Census for the U.S. as a precursor and facilitator of a new universal Flora?