The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: 11/3/85 ¶ ¶ It has not been often during the last 30 years, dear Sir Joseph, that I have troubled the Kew-establishment by asking for comparisons of critical plants, as I do not wish, to give any tro...

Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M3a, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 85.03.11a

Plant names

Richardsonia
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Rubiaceae
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Spermacoce
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- Australian Plant Name Index

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker, 1885-03-11 [85.03.11a]. 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/1880-9/1885/85-03-11a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

MS is an unsigned draft in M's handwriting found, together with J. McLachlan to M, 10 March 1885, with a specimen of Richardia stellaris (MEL 2268397). No copy has been found at Kew, and the letter may never have been sent.

11/3/85

It has not been often during the last 30 years, dear Sir Joseph, that I have troubled the Kew-establishment by asking for comparisons of critical plants, as I do not wish, to give any trouble to you and your assistants; but now and then — at long intervals — particular instances did arise, to invoke the Kew-aid and to profit from its vast resources of the Museum. So I venture to submit to you a found in the vicinity of Port Jackson some months ago. Will you kindly cause it to be compared with the South American small species, described by D.C., and with any which recently may have appeared by J. Mueller or others in the of the Flora Braziliensis (melius Brasiliana)

= better Brasiliana. M also argued that the title of Bentham (1863-78) should have been Flora Australiana rather than Flora Australiensis; see, for example, M to G. Bentham, 24 December 1861.

As the allied genus has species as well in the eastern as western hemisphere, it would not be so very wonderful, if a occurred as in indigenous in Australia. I have not very carefully examined the plant, but like to send it you by this mail; I may have leisure within the next days to dissect it with more exactitude. The locality of its growth is remote from houses and gardens; still for all that it may be an introduced weed, though it was never noticed before in places, from whence it could have escaped into seclusion. It might yet be found in other places, as such a small weed is readily overlooked.