Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Pollination of Eucalypts', Gardeners' chronicle, 10 May 1884, p. 614 (B84.05.01). It is dated to March 1884 as the latest likely date it could have been written to have been printed in this issue. It is introduced by 'On this interesting subject, which was discussed in these columns some time since, Baron Von Mueller writes:—'.

The previous mention of pollination in Eucalyptus was in the issue of 2 February 1884, p. 148, in a discussion of Naudin (1883):

Singularly enough it is not yet ascertained whether fertilisation takes place before or after the fall of the little cap which at first covers over the stamens and styles. If before, then cross-fertilisation would not occur as a rule. M. Naudin, however, suspects that the fertilisation takes place after the fall of the cap, and that much of the variation met with is due to crossed impregnation. This would certainly seem the most probable view, though against it we have to set the opinion of Baron von Mueller, whose experience is so large that no one would be disposed to question it unless he felt very secure of his facts. So far as the Riviera is concerned, and the few species there grown, the question as to the self or cross-fertilisation surely could speedily be settled, even if it were more difficult to prove actual hybridity.

The pollen is shed on the stigmas of Eucalypts before the operculum drops; but of course honey-seeking insects may occasionally carry additional pollen from other flowers and even other species, the fruit being polyspermous. Natural hybrids among Eucalypts are probably rare — at least I do not find transitory forms among the several gregarious species of any one locality, but artificial impregnation would not be difficult. Crossing of the large-flowered species, particularly those having red and yellow filaments, with each other, would doubtless produce new horticultural forms, some likely to surpass in beauty the natural ones.