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RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1882-90, f. 274. 89.04.18

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Thiselton-Dyer, 1889-04-18. 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/1880-9/1889/89-04-18-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

18/4/89
1
Date stamped: Royal Gardens Kew 27. May. 89. Annotated in red pencil by Thiselton- Dyer: And 22.5.89 (letter not found).
As mentioned in my last letter,
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M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 17 April 1889.
dear Mr Dyer, the Gymoschoenus went by the "Ballarat" or rather is loaded into that magnificent ship by the P & O Line, which is to steam off this evening. (Freight paid here).
3
Freight paid here is written in the central margin, f. 274 front, its position in the text indicated by asterisks: the brackets are an editorial addition.
For scenic planting these kind of plants should be more chosen from all parts of the world than has hitherto been done.
I gave Mr Bage,
4
Mr Bage underlined in red pencil. Edward Bage (1851-1891).
a partner here in a great merchants firm, a letter to you,
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Letter not found.
merely asking, that in his exceptional case you kindly might allow him, to see your grand establishment under the "Cicerone"-ship of one of your Officers. He married a daughter of a rich German Merchant here, of
6
of added in central margin before Mr Lange.
Mr Lange,
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Frederick C. Lange, partner in Lange and Thonemann, general merchants and Importers, who acted as the Austro-Hungarian Consul in Victoria (Sands and McDougall’s Melbourne and Suburban Directory, 1884, p. 331). His daughter Mary Charlotte Lange (1862-1931) married Edward Bage in 1882.
the one after whom I named the remarkable
Phajus Langei

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from New Caledonia.
8
Phajus Langei

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not found (IPNI, accessed 2 July 2020). M evidently changed his mind about the genus. The notes to the description of Calanthe langei in B85.09.05 are consistent with the context in this letter: 'In New Caledonia, from whence it was transmitted … to Fr. Lange, Esq., of Melbourne, in whose splendid garden it bore flowers in August, 1885'. See also M's label on MEL 515977, 'cultiv by Mr Lange 1885'. IPNI (accessed 2 July 2020) cites Southern science record, new series, 1 (1885), perhaps following the source note in B85.11.03 or B85.11.06; no description in any of the surviving new series issues of the journal has been found, but there is an apparent proof sheet/extra-print in the National Library of Australia, PETHpam 538 (B85.13.28), copies of which M presumably sent to the Gardener's chronicle and Botanisches Centralblatt.
He died lately; he was one of the few mercantile Patricians here, who spent annually a large sum on his glass-houses and other horticultural concerns. Mrs Bage and her little children have proceeded also on this tour to Europe.
Regardfully
always your
Ferd. von Mueller
The Presidency for the Austral. Assoc. early in 1890 commences to weigh on me. The railways will just then be so far ready, that we can take the hundreds of Ladies and Gentlemen to the Glaciers of the Austral alps, first named and ascended by me in 1854 and 1855.