To William Hooker   15 April 1858

Melbourne bot Garden

15. April 1858

My dear Sir William.

We are again disappointed in not receiving our home letters, due before the despatch of the English mail, and I have therefore few remark to offer by this steamer.

I beg to say, that your plants, sent per "Norfolk" are prospering. I bought a copy of Flora Tasmanica, which happened to be for sale at Hobarton, and am now at last in possession of fasc IV of this valuable work.1 From a hasty glance I am convinced, that I have to contribute not only many additional notes to the Coralliflorae, but also several species and I commence this time with Limnanthemum exiguum, Sebaea albidiflora &c Mr Oldfields new researches in the S W. of V.D.L.2 prove the occurrence of the [Genus] Gingidium there,3 which again produces an [edemic] species. Some new notes on Epacridae I hope to supply by next mail. It is quite evident, that Dr Hooker had in many instances to contend with imperfect material, and I believe to be in the position to prove, that many reductions in the species are again necessary. In the pharmac. journal, which I have the pleasure to forward, I described the new Rhus rhodanthemum,4 like your South African one, it is decandrous.

Leucopogon affinis is an excellent species and ranges as far as Moreton Bay! but grows not in South Australia, altho in Victoria, N.S. Wales & Tasmania. —

I have written to Mr Pamplin to send me as soon as possible the new edition of Steudel Nomenclator Botanicus5 which would be very useful for my compiling the new catalogue of the garden. A second hand copy of Bot. Magaz. & Bot. Regist.6 would be also the most powerful aid in my labours I could have.

I intend to devote my spare hours for a few months to the genus Eucalyptus. If any duplicates of this genus authentically named were obtainable anywhere, it would be indeed a great aid.

I hope my letter per last mail reached your friend Ch. Darwin.7

Wishing you all prosperity

I am, dear Sir William,

Your humble

Ferd Mueller.

 

Eucalyptus [R]isdoni is certainly only a young state of an alternately leaved Eucalyptus!8

The genus Maundia occurs in my North Austr. collection as Leiostigma9 a name which is not very characteristic in Juncagineae.

 

Coralliflorae

Epacridae

Eucalyptus risdoni

Gingidium

Juncagineae

Leiostigma

Leucopogon affinis

Limnanthemum exiguum

Maundia

Rhus rhodanthemum

Sebaea albidiflora

 
1
J. Hooker(1855-60). Fascicle IV was published 28 July 1857 (TL2).
2
Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania).
3
Presumably G. procumbens (B58.03.01, p. 15).
4
B58.04.01, p. 43.
5
Steudel (1840-1).
6
Curtis (1787-1826) and W. Hooker (1827-64); Hooker had issued 31 vols by the date of this letter, Edwards (1815-47).
7
In reply to C. Darwin to M, 8 December 1857; see M to C. Darwin, March 1858 (in this edition as 58-03-00c). Lucas (2010), pp. 103–4, shows that the citation in Darwin’s manuscript now published as Stauffer (1975) p. 553, did not, as Burkhardt & Smith (1993) infer, come from this letter.
8
Joseph Hooker described Eucalyptus risdoni in J. Hooker (1847) p. 477.
9
M erected Maundia (M. triglochinoides) in B58.03.01, p 23; Leiostigma not in IPNI, presumably an herbarium name. It was used in 1944 as a name for a fungus genus (Index fungorum).

Please cite as “FVM-58-04-15,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/58-04-15