To Joseph Hooker   14 February 1859

Melbourne bot.& zool Garden

14 Febr 1859.

My dear Dr Hooker.

Having received from my Colonial bookseller lately No 7 of your much admired Tasm. Flor,1 I continue as on former occasions to offer a few remarks, which may be welcome for the supplement which now doubt you will append to the last fascicle. Gunnia Australis = Sarcochilus Barklyanus mihi2 Fragmenta N. 4.3 It has green not yellow sepals. I have established a [remarkable] genus of Portulaceae with septifragal dehiscence as Gunnia from a little sprick in Mr Babbages collection west of Lake Torrens.4 The report on it will be ready by next mail and be sent to you. The coll. contains also a new genus of Salsolaceae (Babbagia) & of Compositae (Kippistia) and (ten) new sp. of which [seven] Eremophilae are truly superb.5

To Mr Hill we owe the discovery of a second spec. of Anopterus (A. macrosper[ma] mihi) from Mt. Linsay,6 [5]000'; back of Moreton Bay. I enclose a fragment.7

Scirpus lacustris grows in V.DL. I have it from near Launceston; no doubt it is common.

My Gahnia subcuta is a true Gahnia, with long filaments which retain the seeds forming a number of little [pendels], which gives a curious look to the plant. It grows also in S. Australia near Mt Lofty, but is altogether a very local plant.8 Is Microlaena Gunnii really a species? Agrostis aemula & Agr. Billardieri flow together by intermediate forms.9

Hymenophilum Tunbridgense & H. unilaterale are decidedly

varieties of each other.10

Asplenium Brownii extends west as far as Mount Gambier. Lycopodium Selago and varium are assuredly the same.

Prof Braun has described already in the Linnaea 1852 my Isoetes humilior which grows also in lowland waters of VDL The Isoetes elatior may be only a variety of it, but the former ought to remain as name. The same excellent friend has offered at the l. c. diagnoses of the Tasmanian Charae.11 The Pilularia = P. Novae Hollandiae Braun, and the opinion of such a master of this order of plants I think deserves consideration; he considers in a letter to me12 at least the W. Australian species quite distinct.

There is a Selaginella omitted in Fl. Tasm., which I have from South Esk River, Tasm and from Port Albert, Snowy River, Dandenong &c in Victoria.

Schizaea fistulosa is quite distinct from S. bifida, it grows in V. D. L in the N. part & at South-Port & in Victoria near Wilsons promontory.

Lomaria Patersonii was found by Mr Oldfield at New Norfolk!

[F. Mueller]13

 

Agrostis aemula

Agrostis Billardieri

Anopterus macrosperma

Asplenium Brownii

Babbagia

Charae

Compositae

Eremophila

Gahnia subcuta

Gunnia Australis

Hymenophilum Tunbridgense

Hymenophilum unilaterale

Isoetes humilior

Isoetes elatior

Kippistia

Lomaria Patersonii

Microlaena Gunnii really

Pilularia Novae Hollandiae

Salsolaceae

Sarcochilus Barklyanus

Schizaea bifida

Schizaea fistulosa

Scirpus lacustris

Selaginella

 
J. Hooker (1855-60).
mihi: 'used after a name to indicate the author's responsibility for it'; Stearn (1992) p. 448.
B59.02.03, p. 89.
MS sentence marked by in left margin.
In B59.10.02, M erected Gunnia (G. septifraga), p. 9, Babbagia (B. dipterocarpa), p. 21, Kippistia (K. suaedifolia), p. 13, and described Eremophila behrii, E. bignoniflora, E. brownii, E. crassifolia, E. duttonii, E. goodwinii, E. longifolia, E. maculata, E. paisleyi, E. polyclada, pp. 16-18, as well as numerous other species.
Lindesay? The locality was given as 'Lindsay' in B59.04.01, although the specimen at Kew Herbarium ( K000739768) has M's label giving the locality as 'Mount Linsay" .
This is a manuscript name (K000739768); Anopterus macleayana was described in B59.04.01, p. 43, with the locality fitting the account in this letter. See notes to M to A. Gray, 10 February 1859.
Gahnia subcuta not in IPNI. MS sentence marked by in left margin.
MS sentence marked by in left margin.
MS sentence marked by in left margin.
Isoetes humilior was described in Braun (1852) p. 722. Braun described the Characeae species collected by Stuart in Tasmania and M in South Australia and Victoria in Braun (1852a).
Letter not found.
editorial addition— unknown amount of letter missing: the text ends at the bottom of a sheet.

Please cite as “FVM-59-02-14a,” 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 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/59-02-14a