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RBG Kew, Letters to I. H. Burkill, f. 153. 93.09.19

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Isaac Burkill, 1893-09-19. 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/1890-6/1893/93-09-19-final.odt>, accessed June 5, 2026

19/9/93.
In reply to your letter just received, dear Mr Burkill, let me say, that only a small number of the plants, brought by Baron A. von Huegel
1
Anatole von Hügel (1854-1928), younger son of the botanical explorer Carl von Hügel, visited the South Pacific, 1874-80, including three years in Fiji during which time he assembled a vast collection of ethnographic and other material.
from the South-Sea Islands, remained here, and I only had occasion to refer to the Baea Commerconi (in honor of a Frenchman not a Scandinavian).
2
Boea commersonii ?
In honor of a Frenchman not a Scandinavian is a marginal note on the front of the folio, its position in the text indicated by asterisks. The parentheses are an editorial addition.
See M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 10 September 1881, for a more extended comment on Commerçon / Commerson. Horsfield, Bennett & Brown (1838-52), p. 120, cite the author of Boea as Commerson.
It did not appear to me, that the collection contained any important novelties, and by a series of heavy extra-engagements in the Department here, lasting through several years, I was unable to follow up this intended research and indeed much other, altho' the prospect is good for resuming various investigations on polynesian plants. But let me not in any way hinder you, to elaborate Baron Huegel's c[o...]
3
Page damaged. Burkill (1898), p. 96 (read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society on 10 February 1896) tendered his sincere thanks 'to the members of staff of the Kew Herbarium, to Mr. C. B. Clarke and to Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller for the considerable assistance which they have given me'.
If I rightly remember I named on hurried inspection some of the species in his set. Please give my greeting to the young Nobleman, and remember me also kindly to the Nestor of British Botanists.
4
Joseph Hooker.
If you meet some Scandinavian botanic authority, ask him to make a tour to a likely place (likely as to his experience) for
Bassia hirsuta

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, which undoubtedly could be found in Britain, altho the glabrous form resembles closely
Suaeda maritima

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(the top is often spirally twisted, and a vestige of hairlets to be found on the leaf-axils).
5
the top is often spirally twisted ... leaf-axils is a marginal note on the back of the folio, its position in the text indicated by asterisks. The parentheses are an editorial addition.
See M to J. Hooker, 11 August 1870 (in this edition as 70-08-11b).
Juncus pygmaeus

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was included in J. Hooker (1878a), p. 416, but not in the first edition of 1870.
I predicted also the British occurence of
Juncus pygmaeus

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many years before it was found, and from my Danish field-experience in the fourth[l]ier years of this century I should also think, that
Scirpus radicans

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,
Juncus Tenageia

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and some other continental plants could yet be found in your island[s.]
6
Obscured by binding strip.
Regardfull[y
your
Ferd. von Mueller]
7
editorial addition — The bottom of the folio has been damaged.