Document information

Physical location:

Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide, South Australia. 90.05.28

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Ralph Tate, 1890-05-28. 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/1890-6/1890/90-05-28-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
MS black-edged; M's brother-in-law George Doughty died on 26 March 1890.
28/5/90.
I regret, that I keep you so long waiting for the finishing notes on the Central Austral. plants, dear Prof Tate;
2
M and Tate had presented a version of B90.14.03 to the Royal Society of South Australia on 1 April 1890; at least some of M's 'finishing notes' were evidently incorporated into the final version, although some names reported here are not included.
but just as you must first attend to University-work, so I have to attend "a priori" to the daily routine-work of the office, which engagements happened to be very time-taxing latterly. Unfortunately the parcel is mislaid in the bot. museum here, which contains the specimens of
Calycothrix longiflora

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; but altho' you say, that the plant from the last expedition June 14th was not that species, I believe it to be a mere form , and do not know what else it could be.
The Alternanthera from Painta-Spring
3
Painter Spring, NT.
I regard as a broad-leaved form of A. angustifolia. The
Cyperus

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N 28 cannot be named with safety, as it has no ripe fruit and so the second
Fimbristylis

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. The Panicum is P. effusum, RBr. The
Scaevola ovalifolia

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constitutes a var with blue corolla and with verrucular-rough fruits. The Goodenia is near G. heteromera and G. filiformis; Altho' I am shy, to establish species from such scanty material, I have ventured to describe it as new and send msc. herewith
4
Goodenia fascicularis was described in B90.14.03, p. 108.
Unfortunately the seeds are not ripe. I am in a similar fix as regards the supposed
Polymeria

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; but at all events the dissection shows it to be an
Ipomoea

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;
5
M and Tate described
Ipomoea

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racemigera in B90.14.03, p. 108.
but we cannot do justice to such a plant from so poor material.
I have failed to identify the Eriocaulon, and will write an accurate description of it within the next few days; that may take up several hours; the name will be E. graphitinum M. & T.
6
M and Tate listed the name Eriocoulon graphitimum in B90.14.03, p. 95, without M's promised description; in Tate (1895), p. 82 and Tate (1896), p. 180 it is spelled E. graphitinum. See M to R. Tate, 11 May 1890, and notes thereto.
In the quietness of Sunday I will go through the hundreds of specimens of
Helipterum incanum

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and allied forms, to see, whether the H. Fitzgibbonsi
7
H. fitzgibbonii?
should stand as a variety or as a species. Then only remains to be examined the
Heliotropium

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which may be a dwarfed form of an usually taller species.
8
Heliotropium

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fasciculatum, named in R. Brown (1849), p. 71, is included in the list, p. 96.
Always regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller