The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: 29/1/85 ¶ ¶ Even if so late, respected Mr Tepper, I do return your best wishes for the New Year most heartily. Best thanks for your interesting article on Kangaroo Island. ¶ SA. The article was presu...

Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M198, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 85.01.29

Plant names

Gompholobium
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Xanthorrhoea
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Otto Tepper, 1885-01-29. 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/85-01-29>, accessed September 10, 2025

MS annotation by Tepper: 'Reply 11.5.85'. Letter not found.

29/1/85

Wenn auch so spät, geehrter Herr Tepper, erwiedere ich doch Ihren Glückwunsch fürs neue Jahr auf Herzlichste. Besten Dank für Ihren interessanten Artikel über Kang. Isl. Ich selbst fand dort schon das in den beiden Blüthenfarben. Von der Kang. Insel fehlt noch das nöthige Material mit Skizze des Wuchses um die Art zu bestimmen.

Mancherlei von Ihnen u anderen Sammlern hat zurückgelegt werden müssen, um nicht zu viel Zeit den dringenden Departements Arbeiten für Victoria zu entziehen.

Sie ehrend und Ihnen Alles Gute wünschend

Ferd. von Mueller.

29/1/85

Even if so late, respected Mr Tepper, I do return your best wishes for the New Year most heartily. Best thanks for your interesting article on Kangaroo Island.

SA. The article was presumably a pre-print or proofs of Tepper (1885) since the volume was not published until March (South Australian register, 10 March 1885, p.4). The published version states that Tepper's paper had been read at the meeting of the Royal Society of South Australia on 15 July 1884, but the newspaper report of the meeting states that the paper was read at a meeting of the Society held on 8 July (South Australian advertiser, 9 July 1884, p. 7).

I myself found there already the in both the flower colours.

By his own testimony, M never collected on Kangaroo Island. In his notes prepared for Tate when the latter was writing Tate (1883), M explains that as he 'was not sufficiently careful in labelling separately each of the 70,000 specimens, which I sent on loan to Kew, I got in a few instances credit for collecting on places, not visited by me personally, while in far more instances others were put forward as collectors of plants on places, where I was first in the field. … Sealey, Bannier & Heuzenroeder visited K. Isl. between 1849-1851. The 37 species are theirs, but it would take much time to make out precisely, who of these three collected respectively these plants’ (M to R. Tate, 13 February 1883 (in this edition as 83-02-13b)). Thus M is no doubt here referring to things he identified among specimens collected by one of these people, and Kangaroo Island specimens attributed to him in collections, e.g., K 83966, MEL 2116948, were not collected by him.

MEL 625093, minus, collected by M from Mt Lofty Ranges, SA, has a note in his hand 'This varies with purple & yellow flowers!'; MEL 625093 is labelled by M as collected by Waterhouse from Kangaroo Island. This is the species that occurs on Kangaroo Island (see J. Black (1943-57), p. 433). is not mentioned in Tepper (1885), so M is evidently responding to either specimens sent to him or a comment in a letter.

The necessary material with sketches of the growth of the of Kangaroo Island is still lacking to determine the species.

See Tepper (1885), p. 52.

Many things from you and other collectors had to be put aside in order not to take away too much time from the pressing departmental work for Victoria.

Respectfully and wishing you every good thing

Ferd. von Mueller.