The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Hydriastele Wendlandiana ¶ W. & D. ¶ I have not reexamined these specimens (for want of time) and trust no displacement of labels occurred I see some disturbance in my Palm collection....

Document information

Physical location:

Queensland Herbarium, Brisbane. 85.00.00g

Plant names

Hydriastele Wendlandiana
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Frederick Bailey, 1885 [85.00.00g]. 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/1880-9/1885/85-00-00g-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

MS found with a specimen of Kentia wendlandia (BRI-AQ24190). The sheet has two packets, labelled respectively by M:

Fruit

Liverpool River

1867

and

Best flowers I have

Liverpool-River

1867 B. Gulliver.

M had named the species as Kentia wendlandiana in B70.04.01; It was transferred to Hydriastele in H. Wendland & Drude (1875), p. 209, in a paper that M did not receive until November 1876 (M to G. Bentham, 28 November 1876), so the packet labels must have been added after that date. Although M retained the name Kentia wendlandia in his Systematic census of 1882 (B83.03.04) it cannot be assumed that the specimen was sent to Brisbane before that, as the text suggests that it was sent without any more work being done on it. On the contrary, the date suggested here, as the earliest likely date on which M might have sent it, is 1885, since that was when Bailey used the name in Bailey (1885), p. 112, attributing it as he did so to M but also noting M's name Kentia wendlandiana . For a discussion of the reaction of M and others to the treatment by H. Wendland & Drude, see Dowe (2018).

W. & D.

I have not reexamined these specimens (for want of time) and trust no displacement of labels occurred I see some disturbance in my Palm collection.