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RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1882-90, ff. 270-1. 89.01.27a

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Ferdinand von Mueller to William Thiselton-Dyer, 1889-01-27 [89.01.27a]. 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/1880-9/1889/89-01-27a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

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Date stamped: Royal Gardens Kew 7. Mar. 89.
27/1/89
Pray, dear Mr Dyer, accept my best thanks for the kind sending of pt. XV of the Flora of British India, and convey to Sir Joseph my admiration of the vast amount of new and reliable information, thus again conveyed. I see, you continue your interest in the
Cycadeae

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.
2
J. Hooker (1875-97), vol. 5, pp. 463-686. Thiselton-Dyer (1888) contributed the treatment of the Cycadaceae.
It seemed to me, that the antheriferous rhacheoles of
Cycas Scratchleyana

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were distinct from those of C. Rumphii, but you have better means to trace the transits, than I can have here.
3
Thiselton-Dyer, p. 657, had concluded that M's Cycas scratchleyana (described in B85.06.04), was a state of C. rumphii.
My bulky material of
Cycadeae

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beng stored away in the narrow space available, I did not compare the shape of the ♂ spike of the Cycas from the Louisiades with that of C. Seemanni
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C. Seemanii?
(being so very busy just now);
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being so … just now written in left margin of f 270, back, with intended position indicated by asterisks; the brackets are an editorial addition.
the rhacheoles may be distinct in both. So I thought it best to send all I had by last mail to you. The leaves and the ♀ of this Louisiade-Cycas were not yet forthcoming, but as Victoria contributes annually £5000 to the Governing of New Guinea & its dependencies, some special efforts are sure to be made for my Department also, and you will thus get through me also many Papuan contributions for Kew.
It would greatly encourage your Contributors to the great opus on
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, if you could bring it out without systematic restrains in decades ; indeed you may otherwise be forestalled from elsewhere. To wait, until every species is fully elucidated, would render much of your material antiquated, before it appeared.
6
Thiselton-Dyer did not publish his planned volume on the
Cycadeae

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, see notes to W. Thiselton-Dyer to M, 28 March 1882 (in this edition as 82-03-28a). M was advocating an approach similar to the one he used to publish his Eucalyptographia, starting with B79.13.11 and concluding with B84.11.02, and including in the final part a list of 'The species of the genus Eucalyptus systematically arranged and their leading characteristics defined'.
Next week we close the Centennial Exhibition.
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Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888-9.
I will then give my geographic adress,
8
At the meeting of the Victorian Branch of ther Geographical Society of Australasia held on 12 December 1888, it was announced that to avoid a clash with the Centennial Exhibition the Annual General Meeting had been postponed to the next meeting of the Society; the next meeting was held on 2 September 1889, at which M read his Presidential Address, B89.10.01.
and settle down again to phytographic work, though something has to be done between this and Easter for the Paris Exhibition
9
Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1889.
yet.
Ever regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.