Document information

Physical location:

87.12.00f

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Walter Baldwin Spencer, 1887-12 [87.12.00f]. 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/1880-9/1887/87-12-00f-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here (B88.01.02) is from Spencer (1888), a general summary of the results of the expedition by the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria to King Island in November 1887. M was not a member of the expedition but named the plants collected (B88.01.03). The note is introduced by 'The Baron von Mueller has been good enough to write the following note, with regard to one or two points of interest : —'.
The item is dated to December as the earliest likely date for it to have been written as the expedition did not return from King Island until the evening of 21 November and the specimens would have had to be delivered to M and assessed before this report could be written.
Amongst the most interesting plants brought by the expedition of the Club is the
Nablonium calyceroides

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. As long ago as 1825 it was named and described by Cassini from a specimen gathered in King Island; only much later it was also found by Mr. Gunn near Macquarie Harbour, in Tasmania. In all probability this remarkable plant will yet be found near the sea-shores of Victoria. This specimen was collected about five miles east of Cape Wickham, in very wet ground bordering on the coast, where a constant stream of fresh water oozes from black loam between high sandbanks. It grew in society of
Polypompholyx

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(no specimen secured),
Scleranthus biflorus

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, and
Distichlis maritima

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. The samples afforded me the opportunity to note the pure whiteness of the corolla and the violet tinge of the anthers.
Specimens of
Samolus repens

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, an exceedingly dwarf and small-leaved, but copiously flowering variety, were brought with somewhat rosy corollas, the plant, as a whole, reminding one of
Glaux maritima

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. It does not seem that mistletoes have been noticed by the party, the genus
Loranthus

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, though represented by more than one species quite to the southern extremities of the Australian continent, having never yet been traced to Tasmania. The whole of the vascular plants now known from King Island fall short of 200 species, but it may be assumed that this number will be doubled when, by renewed visits to the island, for which purpose the regular steam navigation between Victoria and Tasmania affords so much facility, all the dense scrubs and the many inland recesses shall have become penetrated by naturalists.