Melbourne bot. & zool. Garden,
16. Febr. 1860
My very dear & venerable Sir William,
Again the mail day arrived, which must not pass without a few lines being directed to Kew. Let me first of all acknowledge your generosity of promising to offer an other addition to the treasures of this garden, as our good & patriotic friend Edw. Wilson Esq. indicated. What a treasure & ornament the Papyrus will be in our lake!1 I will do my utmost to reciprocate worthily, & you, my dear Sir William, will, I am convinced pardon any shortcomings of mine, because I was really very unwell for a long time last season & not able to sit up so late at night sorting specimens, labelling &c as I was accustomed to do; had also much work in seeing the sceem2 of the forthcoming expedition3 progressing & to attend to my presidency of the Royal Society.4 In a few weeks however I shall send a good share of plants to your herbarium, containing many a rarety from near Sharks Bay5 & from New England.6 I trust Mr Bentham will not commence publishing his ardently expected flora,7 until these valuable treasures arrive. I was very sorry, that the Victorian Government, through a change of Ministry withdrew the promised aid of £1000 - - for this year, & but I confidently hope that when placing it again on the estimates for 1861 in June next, that we shall be more successfull.8 The South Australian Government is kind enough to promise a share towards the fund for Mr Benthams flora in proportion to our own, taking the discrepancies of the income of the two colonies into account.9 I am steadily proceeding as well with the "plants indigenous to Victoria"10 as with the "Fragmenta".11 Dr Hookers kindly transmitted list of India-Australian plants12 throws much light on my northern species, but I must still refrain from publishing many of them, as I am inclined to believe even more to be identical with Asiatic species, than Dr Hookers list promulgates. Therefore, my dear Sir William, you can imagine how grateful I will be to receive the set, which Dr Harvey writes13 was laid kindly by aside for me from the E. I. Company's Herbarium.14
If providence grants me life, I hope to be able to do yet much in elucidating the native flora. From E. Australia I received just now a curious new genus of Cunoniaceae or some allied order, which will be published in Fragm xii,15 also a second species of Oberonia with exceedingly minute flowers.16
I have examined good ripe seeds of Macarthuria; it is beyond all doubt Portulaceous Mollugineous!
This week I received at last ripe fruit of Burtonia subalpina; it is as you rightly foresaw a true genuine Pultenaea! but has uniformly rose-coloured flowers. The white flowered Villarsia from W. Australia I have just described; also a white rayed Senecio from thence & a green flowered Leschenaultia.17
The Capparideous Emblingia is one of the oddest things I ever saw, and also the Lobelia with long filiform seed capsules from Sharks Bay is very curious.18 I have also now flowers of Anopterus Maccleyana.19 It is a fine species with octamerous flowers. What I formerly [sent] as Senecio drymophilus is Gynura ovalis DC! can you or Dr Hooker kindly inform me where Macrozamia Fraseri is described? — I think to be able to send my next consignment in a fourthnight by the "Great Britain." Mr Wilson announced your kind shipment by that vessel, but it did not arrive in [time].
Ever gratefully yours
Ferd Mueller.
Anopterus Maccleyana
Burtonia subalpina
Cunoniaceae
Emblingia
Gynura ovalis
Leschenaultia
Lobelia
Macarthuria
Macrozamia Fraseri
Oberonia
Papyrus
Pultenaea
Senecio
Senecio drymophilus
Villarsia
See J. Hooker to M, 26 December 1859.
scheme?
The expedition of which Robert O'Hara Burke was appointed leader on 30 June 1860 and which became known as the Burke & Wills Exploring Expedition, 1860-1.
M was President of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria when, in January 1860, it was granted the title Royal Society of Victoria.
WA.
NSW.
i.e. Bentham (1863-78).
On 27 October 1859, the Ministry of John O'Shanassy was replaced by one led by William Nicholson.
The Governor of South Australia reported that he found his Ministry 'well disposed to aid the scheme in proportion to the means of this Colony—or in other words to contribute their quota according to the equitable proportion of cost, which South Australia's population as compared that of the neighbouring Colonies ought to bear' (R. Macdonnell to W. Hooker, 9 October 1859; RBG Kew, Directors' letters, vol. LXXV, Australian and Pacific letters 1859-65, letter no. 104).
B62.03.03.
Details of Fragmenta parts and dates of issue can be found in the file, 'Published works of Ferdinand J. H. Mueller', in this edition.
Joseph Hooker had sent M proof sheets of the list of Indian plants in Australia included in the introduction to J. Hooker (1860), pp. xlii-xlix in the 'Introductory essay', also published separately as J. Hooker (1859a); see J. Hooker to M, 26 December 1859. The proof sheets have not been found.
Letter not found.
It is not clear whether the East India Company set, specifically, was sent. However, a set of exsiccatae assembled by Joseph Hooker and Thomas Thompson, "Herbarium Indiae orientalis", arrived in Mebourne by April 1860 (M to J. Hooker, 20 April 1860). See also Maroske (2012).
Probably Cadellia (C. pentastylis), B60.05.01, pp. 25-6, the opening description in fascicle 12 which is otherwise devoted to Myrtaceae and two orchids.
Oberonia palmicola (B60.02.02, p. 24).
Villarsia albiflora, Senecio leucoglossus and Leschenaultia chlorantha (B60.02.02, pp. 21, 15 and 20).
Emblingia calceoliflora and Lobelia stenotheca (B60.02.02, pp. 3, 20).
A. macleayana, described in B59.04.01, p. 43, but without M having a specimen with complete flowers.
Please cite as “FVM-60-02-16,” 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