Document information

Physical location:

90.01.00

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to J. Ednie Brown, 1890-01. 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/1890-6/1890/90-01-00-final.odt>, accessed June 5, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from the letterpress accompanying the plate of
Acacia notabilis

Search for Acacia notabilis in

in J. E. Brown (1883-90) (B90.02.03). The plate was in Part IX, reviewed in South Australian register , 26 February 1890, p. 4, and M's letter is dated to January 1890 as the very latest that it could have been sent for Brown to include the comment. It is not known, however, when Brown sent the text to the printer; it may have been sent much earlier, perhaps as early as 1888, when Part VIII was issued and reviewed in South Australian advertiser , 13 March 1888, p. 4.
The text is introduced by:
The species was first found by Baron Sir Ferd. von Mueller, and in answer to our request that he should favour us with his reasons for giving it the specific appellation of " Notabilis ," that eminent botanist says:—
Brown's request letter not found.
When in 1851, whilst a lonely rider to the Elder's Range, I found Acacia Notabilis near Mount Remarkable,
2
Both place names SA.
the thought occurred to me that the Latinized name of that mountain, then ascended by me, might be applied to this new Acacia , because it also was 'remarkable' in some respects particularly in the position of the seeds. Thus the adjective 'notabilis' became first introduced for naming in Botany; since then several writers have utilised the word.
3
Including M himself in Cassia notabilis ; however, Wendland's name Erica notabilis had been published by Sprengel in Linnaeus (1825-8), vol. 2, p. 184.