Melbourne 1 Febr 1857
My dear Sir William
Just returned from a flying visit to my sisters1 and prepared to return to Sydney again, I am anxious to despatch a few lines, in order to repeat a few of the principal points of my last letter, in case this should not arrive. I shall however not dwell this time upon the wider topic of our Australian exploration, having with the last mail forwarded a special account of the latter part of the exploration, at least as far as Botany is concerned. I have first to state once more, that your as well as my plan to visit now Europe in order to complete the examination of the newly discovered plants has been for the present frustrated. For altho' both the Gov. General & the Gov. of Victoria2 viewed our application most favourably, I found arrived at Melbourne, when I intended to arrange for my farther prolongation of my leave of absence, that the opinion of the Council & the Colonists is against my leaving, in fact that a renewed absence would likely involve the loss of my position in Victoria. Nevertheless I see for the present no obstacle to proceed to Kew after 2 years, preparing in the meanwhile as a byework the North Australian plants for the press, and publishing part of my Victoria Flora. Thus my position will be consolidated again, and I can finish under you that part of the work, for which here not sufficient materials are at command.
I have particularly to look upon the reconsolidation of my position in this colony, as all other employment would be ephemeral and my health is by far not so firm as I wished and obliges me not to disregard a good fixed position. Moreover it would be ingratitude to the Government & Colonists, to leave instantly again my adopted home, where I have been so kindfully and flattering remembered, where my absence on many public occasions has been regretted, where I was received again with marked kindness and respect. A new three-roomed cottage has been built for me,3 my salary has been augmented to 600£ annually,4 so that I see now a fair prospect of saving a little for days of need. During the last four or five years I had no time to look after my private-affairs, which consequently went nearly to ruin.
In Sydney I intend to label the plants from North Australia more correctly and to copy the rough notes for transmission to the Government.
With the last mail I took the liberty of forwarding to you a bill of exchange for 25£. I beg now to transmit the secunda and hope you will pardon me, if I ask from your kindness to order for me through your bookseller such books, as you, Sir William, deem requisite, for the furtherance of my labours on the North Australian plants. Undoubtedly I require Hook & Thompsons flora Indica. 5 I pray also for the transmission of a simple microscope, such as you recommend to your scholars and as Prof. Harvey used here for general analyses of plants. The bye following list shows what books I possess. I do not know whether Seemans new publication6 will aid me. Works on Cryptogamia are at present of little use to me, as I can not afford time for their study except for ferns, and for these the wanting part of your excellent spec. filic. 7 would be highly acceptable. I think the works on Indian plants previous to Walpers8 I may dispense with, as his extracts are tolerably complete. Bauers illustrationis florae Novae Hollandiae 9 & also his or your genera filicum 10 I think I should desire. [...]11 & spec. orchideaceum12 farther your Icones vol V VI VII VIII IX.13
I hope that at my return to Sydney the schooner will have arrived with the collections from the Victoria River & Central Australia, so that I may be able to absolve the work by May or June, when I must immediately return. It seems to be the intention of the Government to invest me with the Directorship of the Bot. gardens,14 to which establishment I stood formerly in a somewhat ambiguous position, being merely an official member of the Committee. I hope that this alteration will be productive of a more extensive interchange of plants with other institutions. Our new glasshouse is erected and ready to receive coldhouse-plants.15
In the limestone caves of Mount gambier (Colony of South Australia) I found a few days ago Cibotium Billardierii. This is likewise the most western locality, I am aquainted with, of Gentiana montana & Sambucus Gaudichaudiana.16
Books in my possession (besides many smaller or less important ones)17
J. Hk. flor. antarctic. (complete)
J. Hk — N. Zeel. (complete)
J. Hk. — Tasm. fasc. I & II
Hook. journals complete as far as 1855 inclusive.
Endl. genera [c]. suppl. I-V.
DC prodr. I-XIII.
DC syst. I-II.
Walp. repert. (complete)
— annales (complete)
Endl. synops coniferr.
— flor. Norfolk.
Kunth Enum I-V
R Br [vermischte b] Schriften, I-V.
Mitch. trop. Austr.
Lehm. pl. Preiss
Labill. Nov. Holl.
Endl. iconograph.
— decades
Guillemin icon. lithogr.
Don gen. syst.
Hook spec. filic. Vol I & fasc. I & II of the second vol.
Plant. Huegelian.18
Hook. icon. I-IV & X
(5. 6. 7. 8. 9. wanting)
Hook. musci exotici
[Steudl] synops. pl. glumac.
Linnaea (partim)
—
I have lately ordered through my booksellers.19
Putterlick Pittosporeae
Fl. Tasm. continuatio
De Vriese Goodeniaceae
Miq. Casuarineae
As. Gray Bot. of Wilk. expl.
Horsfield & Bennett pl. javan. rarior.
Steudel nomenclator
Dr Sonder intends to send Pritzels works & Endl. atakta.
I shall have access in our public library to Bot. Magazin, Bot. Regist., Bot. Cabinet; at least I ordered these works. —
Wight icones plant. Ind. or & Wallich plant. [asiat.] rariores I intend to order for the University library.
In case of the transmission of a small pamphlet on the plants of Victoria by Mr Hannaford published during my absence, I feel it my duty to mention, that it is virtually a copy of my first report with habitats copied for all rarer kinds from the Gov. Collection, which Mr H. omits to state on any occasion.20 It must seem consequently, that Mr H was the discoverer of all these rare plants, whilst he never saw any but those about Melbourne & Warrnambool, and never added a single spec. to the collection except Botrychium Australe, if really distinct from B. Lunaria. — He found also the first specimen of Damasonium Australe (Actinocarpus carpus minor) but does not hesitate to give my remark on the normal number of 9 carpels as his own. — I should consider it below my dignity to mention this at all, might not Dr — —,21 to whom the work is dedicated imagine, that I had withdrawn the merits from Mr H., should he afterwards meet with the pages of the Flora of Victoria. All Mr H's plants were determined by myself. I beg, Sir William, you will consider this a private communication, unless Mr H's product should come before the public in England, for anyone a little versed in Botany might [here] before a public, which does not understand the merits of the case, do me a great deal of harm.
[...]22
Near Port Fairy I examined a few days ago the flowers of Tetragonella implexicoma once more in a recent state. I find them constantly hermaphrodite, with 2 or 3 styles and a 2-or-3 celled ovary. Fruit was not ripe, but it is a red spherical berry.23 I gave a short memoir in my last letter on the two first fascicles of Fl. Tasm.,24 in which Dr Hooker has been kind enough to speak so favourably on some of my labours.25 I pray to be permitted to direct the attention of its excellent author to the following points. Tripterococcus spathulatus is adopted by Schuchhardt;26 if it can not be separated from Stackhousia, th[e]n all the other sp. must be reduced to Stackhousia. Clematis linearifolia is undoubtedly C. microphylla DC. Ranunc. rivularis, inundatus & glabrifolius I have traced into each other, and R. Pumilio into R. sessiliflorus. Dr Hooker has to insert into the Supplement Browns Draba Pumilio (I think that is the name) described in DC from V.D.L. I found the cotyledons of Hutchinsia procumbens incumbent, consequently it belongs to that part of the genus conferred by Meyer, Koch &c to Capsella, whilst the accumbent sp. are referred to Thlaspi. Hutchinsia Australis will probably prove identical with Capsella antipoda Vict. transact. Viola Sieberi I have watched for years and can not refer it to V. hederacea. Hymenanth. Banksii is a collective name for H. angustif.27 & dentata, which I have seen clearly in all intermediate forms, none of the specif. names agreeing with the species properly. Tetratheca Gunnii [&] procumbens seem to be identical with T. calva (vid. Schuchh.28) Scleranth. fasciculiis a var. of sc. biflor.29 — Halothamnus microphylla, unfortunately referred to Euphorbiaceae — is dioecious. Hyper. Japonic.30 flowesinto H. [graminuem] and so does G. pontentilliodes in Geran.31 dissectum & whilst G. brevicaule is an excellent sp. Pelarg.32 Australe & Acugn.33 do in my opinion not specifically differ. Roepera has upon the examination of 9 sp. been referred to Zygophyllum, and I can not change my opinion. Zygoph. foetid.34 from the C.G.H35 would be Roepera. I am not aware that Dr Sonder has written on the subject. Boronia dentigera is very remarkable for rough seeds; I possess it from Tasmans Peak V.D.L. communicated & collected by Stuart. Of Pult.36 bossiaeoides37 are V.D.L. & South Austr. specim. in my collection. Is not Boss.38 cordigera identical with Boss. horizontalis. Goodia polysperma is Argyrolobium sp. C.G. H. Psoralea Gunnii seems to be Ps. adscendens, first gen. rep.39 Swainsona is according to G. Don not named after the late Will. Swainson, but may now commemorate his memory also.40 Zichya Latrobeana is a plant of Meisner (Lehm. pl. Preiss,41 adnt.) and Leptocyamus Latrobeanus second gen. rep.42 — All the endless Australian forms of Epilobium I feel obliged to refer to one species. I fear my Calandrinia pygmaea is Talinum nanum Nees. — Calandr. calyptrata seem common in W. Austr. according to Preiss, also in S. A. & Vict. A Mitchellian43 specimen of Calandrinia Balonensis proves it to be a most beautiful large flowering plant. I have not found it, but two other very distinct sp. in trop. Austral.44 There is also an other sp. at Port Adelaide45 different from the 3 West Australian ones, besides a second one that I have not seen, found by Sir Th. Mitchell.46 A plant from the Nicholson River, Gulf of Carpentaria,47 may be identical with Calandriniacalyptrata. I shall reexamine Bauera sessiliflora, but I believe it to be well marked from Bauera Billardiera in anthers &c., [...]48 of Fl. Victor. Microsciadium H. f. non-Boiss. is Oschatzia Walp.
Actinocarpus carpus minor
Argyrolobium
Bauera Billardiera
Bauera sessiliflora
Boronia dentigera
Bossiaea cordigera
Bossiaea horizontalis.
Botrychium Australe
Botrychium Lunaria
Calandrinia Balonensis
Calandrinia calyptrate
Calandrinia pygmaea
Capsella antipoda
Cibotium Billardierii
Clematis linearifolia
Clematis microphylla
Damasonium Australe
Draba Pumilio
Epilobium
Euphorbiaceae
Gentiana montana
Geranium brevicaule
Geranium dissectum
Geranium pontentilliodes
Goodia polysperma
Halothamnus microphylla
Hutchinsia Australis
Hutchinsia procumbens
Hymenanthera angustifolia
Hymenanthera dentata
Hypericum graminuem
Hypericum japonicum
Leptocyamus Latrobeanus
Microsciadium
Oschatzia
Pelargonium acugnaticum
Pelargonium Australe
Psoralea adscendens
Psoralea Gunnii
Pultenaea bossiaeoides
Ranunculus glabrifolius
Ranunculus inundatus
Ranunculus Pumilio
Ranunculus rivularis
Ranunculus sessiliflorus
Roepera
Sambucus Gaudichaudiana
Scleranthus fasciculiis
Scleranthus. biflorus
Stackhousia
Swainsona
Talinum nanum
Tetragonella implexicoma
Tetratheca calva
Tetratheca Gunnii
Tetratheca procumbens
Thlaspi
Tripterococcus spathulatus
Viola hederacea
Viola Sieberi
Zichya Latrobeana
Zygophyllum foetidum
Hannaford (1856), p. 4, explains that his aim is 'to give an index of the more common Phaenogamous or flowering plants and ferns, with their habitats and dates of flowering, from specimens in our own herbarium — referring our readers for more full information, to the reports of our esteemed friend, Dr. Ferdinand Mueller, the Government Botanist, on the Vegetation of the Colony'.
On 10 November 1856 Hannaford wrote to R. Gunn: 'I am fully aware of the shortcomings of my little work — but the management of a Bank (working often as late as 10 at night) rather interferes with Natural history Studies. I sincerely wish all the plants had been introduced — but I merely intended it as a forerunner to Muëllers large work. He was very indignant when he heard some 2 years since of my intention to publish a work of the kind, and even threatened to prevent my having access to the Government collection for comparison. This thoroughly disgusted me as it was only at his request & knowing that he was working at the Flora of the colony — that prevented my forwarding all my specimens to Sir William Hooker as he requested. I worked very hard for Muëller when in Melbourne — prepared his papers for the press &c. I did not make my Book as far as I might have done simply — that Mueller should not even hint of my having made use of information derived in any way from working with him: & only gave those plants which were thoroughly examined — from my own herbarium' (A247 Gunn papers, Mitchell Library, Sydney).
Please cite as “FVM-57-02-01,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/57-02-01