Document information

Physical location:

Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide, SA. 89.10.15

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Ralph Tate, 1889-10-15. 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/1880-9/1889/89-10-15-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

15/10/89
Altho' I am so very much pressed for time, dear Professor Tate, just now through heavy departmental engagements and in finishing off the essay on Sir W. MacGregor's plants, I must write you at once a reply, if even only hurriedly to your numerous questions.
1
Tate had evidently sent M questions arising from the preparation of his Handbook of the flora of extratropical South Australia (Tate (1890)).
As regards native plants and immigrated plants, it is not always easy to decide; but I obtained 40 years ago
Adenostemma

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from the Murray-River, where also on one locality we have
Aspidium molle

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as an outpost , just as in one place of the Grampians
2
Vic.
as an only one in Vict we have
Psilotum triquetrum

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and
Davallia pyxidata

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. You have
Dicksonia Billardierii

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3
D. billardierei?
only (except at Mt Gambier) on the upper cataracts of Mt Lofty in S.A. If this tree fern is to be called D antarctica, then all North Italian plants should be called arctica also.
4
This sentence is written in the margin but appears to belong here.
In 1847 already
Siegesbeckia

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was frequent on the Torrens River.
5
SA.
Hence I regard it indigenous, though it would much easier immigrate than
Adenostemma

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.
Cakile

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I shall omit in the next Census. I watched its advent and spread in the Australian coast, where it made its first appearance about 1860. Sir J. Hooker still calls in popular language various kinds of fruits pods , thus the fruits of
Leguminosae

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and of
Cruciferae

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. This is regrettable, because that of
Leguminosae

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is a solitary "Carpel" (fruitlet) of an apocarpous fruit, as you can see at a glance on the plate of
Albizzia Vaillantii

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Pomatotheca

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should be abolished ; it is an unfortunate mixture of two plants. I believe
Papaver aculeatum

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introduced from S. Africa with "Cape Barley" in the early years of colonisation, just as the British wild Poppies have come since.
How sad the death of poor J. T. Woods!, accelerated to so much exposure even in fever regions. By all means admit all his Penola plants,
6
Woods lived for many years at Penola, SA.
but do so under his authority. It would be unjust to him, if we were to expect from him accurate knowledge of all native plants, his real strength being Geology.
My Census aims not at completion, and many additions, which came 1887, 1888 & 1889 even from S.A. I had to lay aside, being worked into ill health already. How would it be possible to spend in each instance several hours over one single critical species or over one solitary perhaps incomplete specimen, when I have to see to the Flora of all the Austral. Colonies, and my main time is necessarily taken up to promote the rural and technol. interests of the Colonist.
If merciful providence will allow me to live a little longer, I will try to bring up all arrears for a large supplement of the Census in 1890.
7
No such supplement was published.
I am quite certain, that
Senecio hypoleucus

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is merely a var of S. odoratus, just as
Polygonum lanigerum

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is only a state of P. lapathifolium. Such cases occur also in the European flora, a familiar one being that of
Spiraea Ulmaria

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, by which Bentham might have been guided. S. Cunninghami & S. Georgianus
8
Senecio Cunninghami

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i and S. Georgianus.
I shall with many yet admitted plants likely abolish in the next Census, but before doing so I should like to examine the vastly augmented material available in my collections now.
Crinum pedunculatum

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was described by RBr. from Pt Jackson.
9
NSW.
I cultivated it for years; it does not cross the coast range. Bentham erroneously but very pardonably referred the inland C. flaccidum (Herbert) to it from a hurried inspection of Herbarium specimens. Kindly remember that I could not cheque such mistakes from the antipodes, while the Flora went through the press and that numerous other alterations had to be made by me, which — to bring them together for easy reference, — was one of the objects of writing the Census. Of course I worked in some instances with additional material of 20 years. You could therefore not always implicitly follow the Flora, which in many cases does not represent my long local experiences.
I must try now, to get a few quiet hours now, to write the Presidential Adress for Jan 1890.
10
M's address as President of the Melbourne meeting of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science; see B90.01.01 for the newspaper report and B90.13.01 for the version of record.
As yet I have had no leisure for it, as the Atlas of Salsolaceae is also going on.
11
B89.13.04 and B90.13.14.
I find, that I should not be able, to give up the time, needful for supplemental pages now at once for the Census, and will make a larger suppl. next year. I shall inform Mr Bailey also to that effect. He moreover has not sent me yet any specimens of his new plants, and until I have seen them and confirmed them by observations of my own it would not be advisable to admit them into the Census; moreover the printing has reached now already to the commencement of the Index.
12
B89.12.03. No supplement was issued in 1890, nor a planned third edition later.
Emex

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I believe introduced from S. Africa. When I saw it at Holdfast Bay
13
SA.
1847 I believed it indigenous, but if that was so, it must have long found its was
14
way?
like
Cryptostemma

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&c to Victoria, and N.S Wales. I was misled by Meisner, who recorded it from W.A.
15
The reference to Meisner has not been identified;
Cryptostemma

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was listed in Meisner (1836-43), p. 223, attributed to R.Br., but it is unlikely that M would have misinterpreted this to mean R. Brown (1810) of which he had a copy; he also had a copy of Aiton (1810-13), in which (vol. 5, p. 141) Brown had erected the genus from South African specimens ((see M to J. McCulloch, 30 September 1865). Elsewhere, for example in M to the Editor of the Argus, 21 October 1863, M reports that the plant had been seen in WA by von Huegel in 1833; see Bentham (1837a), p. 67, who, however, expressed doubt that it was indigenous.
But from what I saw there in 1877 I believe it also introduced during colonisation-time . I have seen the genuine
Geijera salicifolia

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only on the coast-slopes of East Austr. Your plant is likely G. latifolia, which passes into the narrowleaved plant. I am not clear about
Bassia Dallachiana

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,
16
Bassia Dallachyana?
not having good fruit Have you?
Pomatotheca

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or
Trianthema humillima

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is unfortunately a compound of two plants. So, please, omit it.
Gastrolobium elachistum

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is, I think, identical with a previously described W.A. plant. I will try to find it out within the next days.
I do not think that I have a specimen of
Ricinocarpus pinifolius

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from a place east of Port Phillip.
17
Port Phillip Bay, Vic.
Have you a S.A specimen of
Daviesia horrida

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to spare? and a fruit specimen of
Acacia Spilleriana

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?
Regardfully always your
Ferd. von Mueller.
I advise to omit all doubtful species, as supplements to your Flora must occur anyhow.
Though so very busy just now, I will give every help in the elucidation of Tietkens plants.
18
B90.14.03.