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RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1882-90, ff. 288-90. 89.08.28

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Thiselton-Dyer, 1889-08-28. 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/1880-9/1889/89-08-28-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

28/8/89
1
Date stamped: Royal Gardens Kew 7. Oct. 89; annotated, in ink by W. Watson: 570/1899 (i.e. entry number 570 in the Kew Inwards book 1888-1892) and in lead pencil by Thiselton-Dyer : And 7.12.89 [letter not found].
From the enclosed telegram
2
M. Brown to M, 24 August 1889.
you will perceive, dear Mr Dyer, that an effort is made, to get
Verticordia oculata

Search for Verticordia oculata in

and V. grandis into the conservatories of Kew. If I succeed in this, I shall regard it as the greatest triumph gained by me in ornamental culture!
3
The entry book records that the Verticordia sp. in the box of sand was apparently dead.
It is not an exaggeration to say, that I have written at least one hundred letters to W.A. purposely during the last thirty years, to accomplish this!
4
No such letters have been found.
— The sandplain south of the Geraldine-mine
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Lead mine, about 120 km north of Geraldton, WA.
is not easily reached, and when I was there myself in November 1877, the heat was already so scortching, that it was hopeless to carry living plants for a long distance on a packhorse. Seeds were procured over and over again, but these kinds of myrtaceous plants somehow are obstinate in yielding seedlings. I have telegraphed to the Resident Magistrate of K.G. Sound,
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King George Sound, WA; telegram not found.
to see the case with plants kindly on board of the English Mail-Steamer, and to ask the Captain, to be so friendly, as to take the plants under his special care. You might give the man a trifle, who will water and shade the plants during the voyage, and who will bring them to Kew,
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bring them to Kew is underlined in blue pencil.
should they not have perished on the way. In the latter case, we must renew the experiment in the next cool season. I expect cuttings of these rare and unsurpassingly beautiful Verticordias and might try, to get some across to you wrapped up in moist moss and tin-sheet. Look at your specimens in the Kew Herbarium! If once you have the plants, they could be multiplied from cuttings with bottom-warmth under a bell-glass.
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There is a vertical blue line after glass.
I shall send you now ferns from the Louisiades,
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Archipelago S. E. of Papua New Guinea.
also a Schoenus
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Schoenus

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is underlined in blue pencil and S. calostachyus, Benth. is interlined in red ink.
Described in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7, p. 368 as a recombination of a species described in R. Brown (1810), p. 233 underChaetospora, a recombination that had already been made in 1811 by Poiret in Lamarck (1783-1817), supplement 2, p. 251.
from there, which must be kept in that genus, though the pistil is somewhat articulated. I refrain from describing it here, as it may be the Malaian
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Malayan?
species, noted in the "gen. pl."
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Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 3, pp 1062-3.
If however new, it might receive Sir Will MacGregors name from Mr Clarke and myself.
Always regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Perhaps after all the people did not get hold of the right kinds of Verticordia I like to keep the experiment in my own hands.
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Paragraph written in margin of f. 288.
These very local Verticordias will be among the plants, which by sheep-depasturing will soon be swept out of existence.
14
Paragraph written in the centre margin of f. 290.