To William Hooker   15 November 1857

Melbourne bot. Garden

15. Nov. 1857.

My dear Sir William

Again the time arrived for the despatch of the monthly mail, by which I beg to forward once more a set of botanical papers. Unfortunately the English mail for this month did not reach us yet, nor did I recieve the pages of your journal alluded to in kind note of August.¹

I have consequently little else to refer to, but to a few botanical matters. I received with very great pleasure the spec[ia]l issues of botanical papers by the Linnean Society. Unquestionably the divisions of the manyfold treaties laid before this grand body of naturalists, can but tend to render the diffusion of its information more easy and general.² I hope Mr Bentham will kindfully compare my North Australian Mitrasacmes (which amount to 17) with the new ones, which he made known by the lately adopted means of the L.S.³ Describing from fresh specimens, I was able to employ many excellent characters for distinction which the tender flowers would not offer in a dried state. The almost climbing species from the Victoria River seems to be a new feature in the genus. The section Dichelocalyx embraces a fourth species, many years ago distributed as M. exigua⁴ (n. sp.) from Spencers Gulf, which differs from the 3 others in a corolla at least twice as long as the calyx. M. pilosa Labill. inhabits the Grampians of Australia felix. A sectional character has been established on M. distylis in our phil. transact.⁵

Mitreola oldenlandioidesWall. was found in our vist to Arnhem's Land.

In Prof. Meisners summary of Chamaelauceae⁶ occur also a few omissions. The occurrence of a Verticordia (V. Wilhelmii, transact. Vict. Inst. I. p.123)⁷ as far east as Spencers Gulf seems interesting. A definition of the truely handsome Schuermannia homocanthoides was furnished to the Linnaea 1852.⁸ The collections, formed lately in tropical Australia contain (as mentioned before) several unknown species of Calycothrix, a new genus allied to Paryphantha,⁹ and a single Tryptomene,¹⁰ not unlike to T. micrantha from Bass Straits described already in your Miscellany 1853 by Dr Hooker.¹¹

To Dr Asa Grays kind note I replied briefly by the last mail¹²

A collection of 24 kinds of timber specimens has been forwarded to you by order of His Excellency the Governor, and I added two Wardian cases one filled with young shrubs and trees, the other with ferns.

Mr Pamplin did not send a single work ordered before, complete, and the total absence of Lindl. gen. & sp. orchidearum & of your species filicum caused me much disappointment¹³

To Dr Hooker my warmest thanks for kindfully selecting for me such a fine microscope.¹⁴

Calycothrix

Chamaelauceae

Mitrasacme distylis

Mitrasacme exigua

Mitrasacme pilosa

Mitrasacme sect. Dichelocalyx

Mitreola oldenlandioides

Paryphantha

Schuermannia homocanthoides

Tryptomene micrantha

Verticordia Wilhelmii