Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M33, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 91.04.00h

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Walter Gill, 1891-04 [91.04.00h]. 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/1890-6/1891/91-04-00h-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

1
Identifications 213-215 are on a single unlined foolscap sheet, while the remainder of the letter — if it is in fact part of the same document — is on an unlined double foolscap sheet from which the top half of the front page, with identifications 222-228, has been detached. That it is the top half of this page is shown by the tops and bottoms of some letters matching across the cut.
The latest record date for a specimen in this list, the specimen no. 217of
Darwinia micropetala

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(MEL 220066), collected on Kangaroo Island, SA, is 11 May 1891, the only Gill collection from May 1891 recorded in AVH (accessed 22 February 2022). Though the label, in what appears to be Gill's handwriting, clearly gives the collecting date as '11.5.91', this appears to be an error for March, several other specimens in the present list having been collected on Kangaroo Island between 11 and 15 March 1891. On the assumption that it is an error, the MS is dated to April 1891 as the earliest likely date that it would have been sent.
213,
Ixodia achilleoides, RBr.
The narrow-leaved form
214,
Verbascum Creticum

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.
(Introduced.)
216,
Helichrysum Blandowskianum

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, Steetz.
217,
Darwinia micropetala

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, Bentham.
218,
Helichrysum adenophorum

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, F.v.M.
219,
Patersonia longiscapa

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, Sweet,
unless it is a dwarf plant
220,
Calocephalus Brownii

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, F.v.M
215,
Acacia
2
See also M to W. Gill, 2 September 1891.
This I cannot at once identify. Does the fruit really belong to the same species as the flowering specimen. Where were the seeds obtained? Perhaps this is a new species. It is however near A. melanoxylon
222,
Styphelia concurva

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, F.v.M.
223,
Apium prostratum

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, Labill
224,
Scaevola aemula

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, R.Brown
225,
Helichrysum retusum

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, FvM
226,
Acacia retinodes

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, Schlecht.
227,
Leptospermum lanigerum

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(var.)
228,
Acacia Oxycedrus

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Sieber
The Goodenia, dear Mr Gill, is a variety of G. ovata, described by R.Br. as G. acuminata.
Just as in the human species so in those of plants, some forms may rise to an almost complete constancy at particular places, but that constancy will break down in other places. Such forms can never be regarded as true species. An enormous number of varieties have been erroneously described as species. The occurrence of fertile hybrids sometimes impair the specific discrimination To recognize a real species in its permanent value, it must be studied over wide areas. The variability of species is greater in our clime than in Britain. A variety can of course have a distinct name as such, but the appellation can never be specific in the true sense. It will require yet studies through long times to settle the exact limits of all species.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller
My own field -studies have extended over 40 years in Europe, Australia and for a short time in S. America.
When I commenced to study plants I admitted far more species than later with longer experience and mor
3
more?
matured judgement
4
The position of the postscript on the sheet shows that it was written after the list of identifications 222-228 was detached; the text begins as a marginal annotation on the final page of the letter (p. 3 of the folded sheet), extending across the full length of the page, but then continues on the verso of the section of the front page that has not been cut off.