Document information

Physical location:

Private hands. 95.02.00

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Montague Rupp, 1895-02. 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/1890-6/1895/95-02-00-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
Rupp spent from November 1894 to February 1895 at Hay, NSW, from where he sent specimens to M for identification. The MS is a single sheet among a collection of letters from M to M. Rupp, all dated early 1895; see also fn 3, below.
Is your
Acacia penninervis

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perhaps A. pycnantha? [Euc] brachypoda = Euc microtheca (wrongly combined by Bentham),
2
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 223; see also B84.13.19.
your
Callitriche Muelleri

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from there I would like to see, also your
Goodenia humilis

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and Scutellaria humilis.
Could you inspire young people, particularly the Ladies, to collect all sorts of plants in their vicinity, especially also floating and submerged weeds & minute annuals. The young Australians ought to love the native vegetation of their natal places!
3
Rupp, using the signature 'M. R.', wrote a letter dated 5 February 1895 to the editor of the Riverine grazier that provides the basis of the dating of the present item. Rupp’s letter was published on 19 February 1895, p. 4. In it he wrote:
I lately sent to Baron von Mueller a list of some 150 or more plants obtained in this district [see M. to M. Rupp, 9 January 1895]. The Baron expresses himself as being much interested in the botany of the Murrumbidgee and Lachlan rivers, and he is anxious to obtain as much information as possible about the indigenous plants of these parts. … Baron von Mueller would be very grateful for any specimens forwarded to him (the cost of sending through the post is never more than a few pence), and it would be little or no trouble for young people, when out for walks near the river, or driving on the plains, to gather specimens of any uncommon or peculiar plants which they may notice, and send them to the Baron, by whom they would certainly be appreciated and acknowledged. A small cardboard, wooden, or tin box will carry them, and they should be addressed to the Government Botanist, Melbourne.
Rupp's letter continued with advice about collecting, emphasizing gathering
not only plants with showy flowers, but those which are inconspicuous, especially, e.g. the smaller saltbushes, tiny annuals, and "water-weeds'" of all sorts. Keep a look-out in places which you think "unlikely" — often in the most unpromising spots you will find something new.
We have yet much to learn on the geographic distribution of many of the species in the whole inland-regions.
I will send in exchange seeds of utilitarian plants
4
Text ends at bottom of sheet without valediction.