The plant from the North Shore is Olax stricta (R. Brown), a plant not yet under cultivation here, and which would be very interesting in my systematic garden. Olacineae are but a small order in Australia. Olax aphylla I found in Arnheim’s Land. Olax obcordata grows on the western side of Spencer’s Gulf, and thence all the way to New South Wales: no member of this order exists. O. stricta extends to Moreton Bay, where it sometimes assumes a broad-leaved and downy form; O. aphylla being also sometimes downy. Besides Olax phyllanthi, two other species (O. Benthamicum and O. religiosa) grow in Western Australia. On the tropical east coast grows my Ximenia exornata, and in New South Wales and North Australia, near the Gulf of Carpentaria, we found Opilia amentacea (Roxburgh), a slender shrub, of which sheep are very fond when the grass or herbage becomes parched. Nor was the plant unacceptable to ourselves, the yellow fruit being of a sweetish, though somewhat acid, flavour.
Olax aphylla
Olax Benthamicum
Olax obcordata
Olax phyllanthi
Olax religiosa
Olax stricta
Opilia amentacea
Ximenia exornata
Letter not found. For the text given here, see the postscript of a letter to the editor by William Woolls, Sydney morning herald, 13 August 1858, p. 3 (B58.08.02). Woolls introduces the text as follows: ‘I have received the following valuable remarks from Dr. F. Mueller’.
Please cite as “FVM-58-08-00d,” 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