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
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