Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1882-90, ff. 232-3. 87.10.19

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Thiselton-Dyer, 1887-10-19. 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/1880-9/1887/87-10-19-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
Date stamped Royal Gardens Kew 27 Nov 1887. Annotated by W. Thiselton-Dyer And 29.11.87 [letter not found].
19/10/87
Herewith, dear Mr Dyer, a
Selaginella

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,
2
Annotated by J. Baker adjacent to this paragraph: An interesting & very distinct new species, 229* in my Synopsis Will describe it in Journal of Botany.
Selaginella

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angustiramea was described under the joint authority of M and Baker in B88.14.01.
from Cuthbertson's expedition,
3
To New Guinea. The specimen was collected by W. Sayer (B88.14.01).
which enterprise has brought very little of plants and nothing zoological.
In sending to Sir Joseph proofslips of my "Key" it was not with the intention of having the work, when finished in a few weeks, reviewed by Kew. I never wished any critic of my writings from your establishment; but I seem to have left that impression on you, when I sent the last edition of the "select plants" from an utterance of mine that I never saw the slightest public reference to that work by the Kew-publications.
Regardfully
your
Ferd. von Mueller.
The Lamarkian dual method was specially demanded from me here; I found it a most difficult one, requiring all my logic-power to deal with the subject without disrupting the chain of affinity. The alterations in organology are made from medical and thence zoological grounds, while the simplification is chosen, to render the work also available to ordinary elementary schools. Spare me in the late autumn of my life the pain of dealing harshly with the work, should the ideas, which I evolved, be not in consonance with those of the workers of Kew.
I have not yet seen Bonnier's
4
J. Baker(?) has written Durand? adjacent to this line. He may have been referring to Durand (1888), which was published in parts from 1877 (TL2) or to Durand and Pittier (1881), a local flora of the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland, but neither work contains a 'key'. Both are in the Library at MEL.
new work, of which I learnt only lately through the Gardeners chronicle; but have ordered that book
5
A review of Bonnier & Layens (1887) was published in the Gardeners' chronicle, 13 August 1887, p. 197. M's copy remains in the Library at MEL.