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96.02.07

Preferred Citation:

William Fitzgerald to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1896-02-07. 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/1890-6/1896/96-02-07-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Remarks on a wild Banana of New Guinea', Victorian naturalist . vol. 13 (1896), p. 53 (B96.08.01). The quotation is introduced by: 'From Mr. Fitzgerald's notes, forwarded by him from Cooktown on February 7, 1896, and now given with some alterations in the organographic words, I extract as essential the following:—'.
I did not collect the specimens of the Banana, which grows on the Mambare-River.
2
Papua. See also N. Miklouho-Maclay to M, 4 September 1885.
Mr. Butterworth, on the request of Sir William Macgregor,
3
See W. MacGregor to M, 15 December 1895 (in this edition as 95-12-15a).
brought a spike on board. Height 15–25 feet; stem stout; leaves 8 to 10 feet in length, 2–3 feet across; spike (thyrsoid raceme) pendulous, 3½ feet long by the same (in largest) circumference (as regards the fruit masses seen); bracts broadly ovate (very acute, according to Mr. Winter's delineation
4
Published in Gardeners' chronicle , 17 October 1896, p. 467:
), 9–12 inches long, bright green.
Flowers numerous, ¾ –1 inch in length, white, the lobes of the calyx firm, linear, with sharply-recurved margins; corolla-lobes small, membranous; stigma trifid; fruit about 3 inches long by 1½ inch in diameter, outside pale yellow; pulp whitish, streaked with purple. Seeds 24–28; testa bony, black. Albument mealy, bitter. The fruit is not eaten by the natives, and is known to them by the name of Tubi.