Document information

Physical location:

Barr Smith Library, University of Adelaide. 90.08.21

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Ralph Tate, 1890-08-21. 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/1890-6/1890/90-08-21-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

21/8
1
8 over 9.
/90
Let me thank you, dear Prof. Tate, for the list of W.A. plants, indicated from Mr Tietkens' collection.
2
See M to R. Tate, 30 July 1890 (in this edition as 90-07-30a).
You will see from the wish, thus expressed, that I am anxious, to do justice to every one but often I am quite distracted by the urgency and multiplicity of engagements at this large place here with its 400,000 Citizens, not to speak of the endless calls of the rural population on my Departmental services. You are quite right in supposing that some of your former sendings are amiss. I have looked for them repeatedly, but cannot find them. As you have seen, when you were here,
3
Tate visited Melbourne in January 1890, to attend the Second Congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science.
the accommodation, since I left the garden, is and has been quite inadequate to the most ordinary requirements. Where a place is overcrowded with articles, it is impossible to keep order. Consider also, that the collections comprise about ¾ millions sheets, so that readily something may be mislaid. Unfortunately in the case now also of
Micrantheum

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I have only 3 specimens, all from Tepper, and the print is now done, I fear, to add your name. I did not remember, that I had the plant from you. Surely you will give me credit, that I would not omit willingly the name of any collector. Even the Garden-man here,
4
William Guilfoyle.
after he behaved so ill to me, got credit for his ferns &c in the Flora
5
Bentham (1863-78).
after 1872 from my collections. I am now pressed for bringing out the 10th part of the "Papuan plants",
6
A galley proof of part of the intended part exists at MEL, but the text was never completed; see B92.11.02, where M comments 'already towards the end of last year I described for the tenth part of the "Papuan Plants" several remarkable novelties, but as more urgent direct official obligations caused the completion of the mentioned publication to be postponed it is deemed desirable to offer preliminary succinct notes in the Victorian Naturalist on some of the new plants elucidated'.
and as I am not strong, like you, and much older too, it will be a charity to me, not to be exacting; but I will try to find the
Barbarea

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and
Stenopetalum

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, laid aside, as I have as yet not done anything critical with them. When I get a little leisure, I will search also for your other plants, but likely it cannot be til 1891, if I live so long. I presume, you have J. Hookers Flora Tasmanicae,
7
J. Hooker (1860).
so that you have been able, to identify the
Schoenus sphaerocephalus

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. Kindly say so, or I will send you a specimen of
Gymnoschoenus

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from here. Its occurrence so far W. is interesting. Where it grows in
Sphagnum

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, other Tasm plants should occur. In the Census I have no space for remarks, only for simple enumerations and quotations. My printing fund run so short, that I could not even print a preface or introductory remark again, altho' I had the manuscript notes for an extended preface ready.
Regardfully always your
Ferd. von Mueller
I thank you for the prints,
8
Not identified.
from which now I can quote
Even in Kew notwithstanding the large Staff, specimens get sometimes mislaid.
Your name can still be mentioned with the
Micrantheum

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in the Naturalist but not on the slips
9
M's description of
Micrantheum

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demissum, published in the September 1890 issue of the Victorian naturalist (B90.09.02) credits both Tate and Tepper as collectors. See above.
How many stamens are on your
Micrantheum

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