To Joseph Hooker1    24 September 1861

24/9/61

Dear Dr Hooker.

Enclosed a letter from Dr Harvey and byefollowing my reply. I thought you would like to read this correspondence, as you desired Dr Harvey to adress me on the subject, to which it mainly alludes.2 I have suffered from bronchial inflammation this winter, but with the returning warm weather I am just recovering health. I trust your worthy incomparable father will now be again in the enjoyment of health. What a blessing to him, that he can depend on you so fully in everything.

I beg to enclose a copy of my letter to the Secr. of the R.S. Will you be so kind to present it, in case the original had not reached?3

I am sorry, that Mr Bentham still continues as on former occasions to publish herbarium names. As long as a plant was not published with a diagnosis, I do not think any reference should be taken to a temporary name, altho' such a name may have appeared in print. Thus Cocculus Hookeri which I saw originally only in fruit was reduced by myself to Stephania long ago, as reference to various of my essays (L.S. &c) will show.4 Citrus Australasica is published by me first in the Fragmenta I, 26, Jun 1858.5 I have the ripe fruit.

These are my herbarium notes on it: Fructus ellipsoidius 1-2" longus odore fere citreo praeditus, 6-loculatus, polyspermus. Semina subovata [v.] globoso-ovata 2-3" longa Testa pallide flavida, laevis. Embryo amygdaloideus. Radicula brevissima supera. Clarence River. Dr Beckler. — We have many excellent articles for the exhibition,6 about 80 sp timber, mostly in large planks. Also a good many distilled oils (Includ. Pittospor undul.7 & Atherosperma moschatum) also a fine series of gyps-fruits &c

The full series I shall see given to Kew, the duplicates to Edinburgh.

Ever yours

Ferd Mueller

 

Mr Oldfield is gone to Cape Lewin8

Pray give Mr Bentham & Prof Lindley my respects9

 

Atherosperma moschatum

Citrus Australasica

Cocculus Hookeri

Pittosporum undulatum

Stephania

1
MS black edged; M's sister Bertha died 7 September 1861.
2
Letters not found; but see W. Harvey to J. Hooker, May 1861 (in this edition as M61-05-00), and J. Hooker to M, 14 July 1861.
3
Letters not found. However, at its meeting 24 October 1861 the Council of the Royal Society resolved: 'That Mr Ferdinand Müller, now in Australia, be granted an extension of the time of his admission into the Society during his stay abroad. (Minutes of the Council of the Royal Society, Printed, vol. 3, London, 1870, pp. 100-1).
4
See Lucas (1995) for discussion of M's complaints about excessive synonomy based on manuscript names. M mentioned Cocculus Hookerianus without description in B56.13.03; it is not clear where M ‘reduced’ this to Stephania; he mentioned Stephania without reference to an earlier name in B58.05.01, p. 141. Bentham (1861) wrote: 'In Australia only four Menispermaceae are as yet known, two of them, Pericampylus incanus Miers (Cocculus Moorei, F. Muell., Fragm. Phyt. Austr. 1. 162) and Stephania hernandiaefolia, Walp. (S. australis and S. Gaudichaudi, A. Gray, Bot. Amer. Expl. Exped. v. i. pp. 37, 38; Cocculus Hookerianus, F. Muell. MSS.), are widely spread Asiatic species' (p. 52).
5
B58.06.01, p. 26.
6
International Exhibition, London, 1862.
7
Pittosporum undulatum?
8
Cape Leeuwin, WA? Mr Oldfield … Lewin in central margin on front of folio.
9
Pray give … respects in central margin on back of folio.

Please cite as “FVM-61-09-24,” 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 16 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/61-09-24