To William Hooker   14 December 1860

Melbourne bot. & zool. Garden

14 Dec 60

Dear Sir William.

At the eve of my departure for the S.W. parts of the Australian alps (hitherto untrotten) I devote a few spare moments for adressing you, in order that my regular correspondence to Kew may not be interrupted.

I have a rough journey before me and trust not only to succeed to mount the colossal hights, but also to add material to my flora and to return without accidents.

I trust Dr Hooker returned safely from his botanical cruisade1

Perhaps it interest your excellent son to hear my opinion that without doubt R. Brown found the Goodenia barbata on the Northern coast of Tasmania, as the plant is common about Twofold Bay, provided I rightly assume, that G. cistifolia A.C. is identical with it. R.Br. saw it only in a dried state and placed it in the yellow-flowered division of the genus; hence arose the confusion. Vriese2 however describes it as blue-flowered, yet does not hesitate to describe for [1] [part] also G. cistifolia as distinct. D.C. describes it also twice. R Br. well noticed the two-seeded seedvessel & the turgidity of the seeds, but no one noticed the remarkable strophiole, which is produced in lieu of the wing. The fruit is exactly that of G. strophiolata.

I trust Mr Bentham will find a fertile field of novel observations in Dr Kirks3 Zamb[e]si plants & furnish us with so excellent [memoirs] for a Zamb[e]si flora as for a Niger flora.4

It seems the fate destines it, that I shall not meet the clever & energetic Dr Seemann personally, as he probably will pass Melbourne whilst I am engaged in the ranges.5

Is there any possiblity of learning what [RBrowns] Huegelia6 is? is it not rather Myrtaceous than rutaceous? Might not Mr Bennett be able to throw some light on the plant?

I have erred in making a new genus (Walcottia) of a species of your genus Lachnostachys (L. Walcottii Fragm. phytogr. Austr. append.)7

I have offered in the essay on the Burdekin plants a supplement to the Indian-Australian plants enumerated by Dr Hooker.8 We will soon have to add others to the list. Hibiscus vitifolius is one of them, already noted by Cunningham.

Does Abelmoschus moschatus ever occur with purple flowers?

I am delighted to see Prof Harvey proceed so happily with his magnificent phycologia Australis.9 Pray give him & Dr Hooker my kind regards & believe me to be your very grateful & deeply devoted

Ferd. Mueller.

 

I enclose a curious small state of Goodenia amplexans collected on the Wimmera. It occurs also on the Nile River, Tasmania.

 

Abelmoschus moschatus

Goodenia amplexans

Goodenia barbata

Goodenia cistifolia

Goodenia strophiolata

Hibiscus vitifolius

Huegelia

Lachnostachys Walcottii

Walcottia

 
1
Joseph Hooker had visited Palestine on leave. See J. Hooker to M, 20 October 1860.
2
Vriese (1854) p. 145-6.
3
John Kirk. In East Africa 1858-63 on David Livingston's expedition to explore Zambesi. Kirk's collections in part published in, eg: Bentham (1862a).
4
A reference to W. Hooker (1849).
5
See notes M to W. Hooker, 20 April 1860.
6
APNI comments that Brown’s Huegelia (a name treated as illegal as the name was occupied) is ‘of uncertain application. Doubtfully placed in synomony of Verticordia’ by M, B89.13.12, p. 88.
7
In B61.02.02, p. 140, M redescribed as Lachnostachys walcottii the plant upon which he had originally erected Walcottia (W. eriobotrya) in B59.13.04, p. 241.
8
B60.13.12. Joseph Hooker's list had been sent to M as proof sheets (J. Hooker to M, 26 December 1859), and was published in the Introductory Essay to J. Hooker (1855-60), vol. 1, pp. xlii-xlix. M did not separately list Indo-Australian species collected by Fitzalan but mentioned the commonality in his treatment of relevant species, e.g. Indigofera pratensis , p. 10.
9
Harvey (1858-63); vol. 3 was published in 1860.

Please cite as “FVM-60-12-14,” 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 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/60-12-14