Ferdinand von Mueller

25/3/93.

Mein bester Dank soll Ihnen ausgesprochen sein, edler Freund, für die Übersendung neuer lichenol. Brochüren. Es ist erstaunlich, welche Arbeitskraft Sie entwickeln, u. auch merkwürdig dass Ihre Augen Ihnen bei doch wohl schon sehr vorgerücktem Alter die Schärfe für solche feine microscopische Arbeiten nicht versagen. Möge Ihnen lange die geistige u. körperliche Kraft für Ihr schönes Wirken erhalten bleiben. Wenn Sie doch wieder an d. K. K. Hofmuseum schreiben, würden Sie vielleicht erfragen, ob die Towomba Flechten direct von Hartmann dahin gingen, wie man nach Ihrer Abhandlung annehmen muss. Soviel ich weiss, hat er nur für mich und zwar auf meinen speciellen Wunsch Flechten gesammelt, wofür ich auch immer Zahlung geleistet habe. Sie würden dann vielleicht gelegentlich eine kleine Bemerkung über den eigentlichen Sender dieser Flechten machen in Gerechtigkeit zu meiner Anstalt, — zumal da der Rev. Wilson in einem europäischen Journal so wegwerfend über meine austr. Flechten Sammlungen in letzter Zeit gesprochen. Bisher hat er sehr wenig selbst dazu beigesteuert. Hätte es einen Prof. Jean Mueller in den vierziger, fünfziger u. sechziger Jahren des Jahrhunderts gegeben, so wäre ich in meiner Reise-Periode auch mehr ermuthigt worden, neben den vielen anderen Pflanzen auch den Lichenen mehr Zeit zuzuwenden. In toto sind meine Flechtensammlungen doch wohl die umfangreichsten Australiens gewesen.

Würden Sie mir die Freundlichkeit erweisen den Passus über Heterodea Muelleri, wie ihn Nylander in seiner Abhandlung über Fuegia u. Patagonia Flechten gegeben p.30 u. in der Schrift über die Patagonischen p.9 abschreiben zu lassen.

25/3/93.

My best thanks should be expressed to you, noble Friend, for the sending of new lichenological brochures. It is amazing what capacity for work you produce and also remarkable that your eyes do not deny you the sharpness for such fine microscopical work at I suppose already a very advanced age. May your intellectual and bodily strength be preserved for a long time for your beautiful work.

If you do write again to the K.K. Hofmuseum,

1

The Imperial and Royal Court Museum (now the Natural History Museum), Vienna.

would you perhaps ask whether the Towomba

2

Toowoomba, Qld.

lichens came there directly from Hartmann, as one must assume according to your paper.

3

i.e. Carl Hartmann. J. Müller (1887), pp. 423-7, mentions specimens from Hartmann in Toowoomba, including some 'mis. [sent by] Dr. Knight', probably the New Zealand bryologist Charles Knight who had published Australian lichens, for example C. Knight (1882).

As far as I know he has collected lichens only for me and in fact at my special request, for which I have always made payment. You would then perhaps occasionally make a small comment about the real sender of these lichens in justice to my institution, especially because the Rev. Wilson in a European journal spoke so dismissively about my Australian lichen collections recently.

4

F. R . M. Wilson (1891) . In his introductory paragraph , Wilson wrote :

No previous paper has been published on the Lichens of Victoria, so far as the writer is aware; and, with the exception of a few specimens in the Melbourne Botanical Museum named by Krempelhuber and J. Mueller, and a few collected along the coast by various persons and named by Nylander and others, the lichenology of Victoria has hitherto been a blank. The paucity of previous information will account for the large number of species and varieties which are here named as new.

Although Wilson went on to say 'In determining the species much help has been obtained from the Lichen herbaria in the Melbourne Botanical Museum, especially from Hepp's collection, and from the specimens authenticated by J. Mueller', M is unlikely to have been mollified by reference to the usefulness of his collection, when he was not mentioned as being responsible for the 'Melbourne Botanical Museum' (which was not the name he gave it). He may also have seen as 'dismissive' the failure of Wilson to acknowledge that M had published Krempelhuber (1881a), which named M's specimens from all Australian colonies.

Hitherto he has contributed very little himself to it. Had there been a Professor Jean Mueller in the forties, fifties and sixties of the century, I would have been even more encouraged in my travel period to spend more time also on the lichens together with the many other plants. In toto my lichen collections have been probably the most extensive of Australia.

Would you show me the kindness to have copied the passage about Heterodea muelleri as Nylander gave it in his paper on Fuegian and Patagonian lichens p. 30 and in the paper on the Patagonian p. 9.

5

Nylander (1888), p. 30, discusses the characteristics of Heterodea, and on p. 29 H. muelleri is cited from p. 9 of an offprint of Nylander (1868) where he made a new name combination for the species, as Heterodea Muellerii. The description is on p. 47 of the full journal issue. It is probable that M's 'Patagonian' here is an error for 'New Caledonian'.