Document information

Physical location:

96.00.00a

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Edward Morris, 1896 [96.00.00a]. 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/1890-6/1896/96-00-00a-final.odt>, accessed June 9, 2026

1
Letter not found. For the text given here, see Morris (1898), p. 176.
Morris's book on Australian English and Australasian words cited M for information in a number of entries. In his acknowledgements he wrote:
I have often been fortunate enough to obtain information from the greatest living authority on a particular subject: from the Baron von Müller, from Sir Frederick M'Coy, or from Mr. A. W. Howitt. [Alas! since I penned this sentence, the kind and helpful Baron has been taken from us, and is no longer the greatest living authority on Australian Botany.], (p. xx).
Morris had been collecting information for his book for 'several years'. M's letter is dated to 1896 as the latest year in which it could have been written.
Professor Robert K. Greville of Edinburgh was born on the 14th Dec., 1794, he was therefore only just fourteen years old when the genus was established.
2
In the entry ' ', Morris noted that the genus was named by Robert Brown for Charles Francis Greville, Vice-President of the Royal Society of London (see R. Brown (1810a), p. 168). He introduced the quotation by 'The 'Century' Dictionary gives Professor Greville as the origin of the name; but' and gave as his authority 'Private letter from Baron F. von Müller'.