24/4/62
My dear Professor
After writing to you a hurried note by this mail2 & finishing my other engagements for it, I found a few spare moments to look over my Cucurbitaceae & to get a few notes copied & a few fragments selected for M. Naudins work. You will observe that the cucurbitaceous plants, known to me with certainty as Australian and which I collected myself in my various journeys are the following:
1. Sicyos angulatus L
Extends from the Islands of Bass Straits and from Eastern Gipps Land to the tropic of Capricorn on the East Coast. —
2. Trichosanthes olida msc.
Arnhems Land on barren ridges, scrambling amongst stones or bushes.
Of this and of most other species I sent you nearly 3 years ago good specimens pr overland mail accompanied by manuscripts. How they never reached you is an enigma to me.3 I can only forward you now of this a small fragment & of others not even as much, because I kept only one specimen of each after my return from North Australia4 and the others were sent to Kew, where Mr Naudin could see good material of each species. Indeed I think it would be very important for Mr Naudin to study the whole of the Kew collection for the sake of completing his work. The Trichosanthes olida is never published by me.5 The description was made on the spot of discovery. It will be easy for Mr Naudin to see whether this and the two other species are distinct from any of the Indian ones. — I had no good means of satisfying myself on that point.
3. Trichosanthes pentaphylla msc.
From the Burdekin to the the Brisbane River on banks in shade. A tall plant, climbing up to trees. Description made on the spot of discovery, where I found however only the plant in an imperfect state.6
4. Trichosanthes subvelutina (msc)
I know this plant only from the vicinity of Moreton Bay. It has the white fringed flowers of Trichosanthes, but I have unfortunately neither flowers nor fruits in our collection
5. Lagenaria vulgaris Ser
Extends from East tropic Australia to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Leichhardt notes the plant in his diary. I saw only the [Calabashes] of it with the natives.
6. Bryonia laciniosa L
from the Clarence River to the Gulf of Carpentaria
7. Zehneria Cunninghami msc.
I enclose some specimens, probably sufficient to establish the species, otherwise I will copy my manuscript notes of the plant from my journal.
8. Muckia micrantha 7
F.M. fragm. phytogr. Austr. II, 180.8 Zehneria micrantha, fragm. 1, 182.9 plant indig. to Vic. tab xviii10 Cucurbita micrantha transact. phil Soc. Vict I, 17.11 from the Murray River to the Vicinity of Lake Torrens. There is a full description of the plant in the fragm.12
9. Muckia scabrella Arn 13
Not rare in tropical Australia.
10. Cucumis jucunda
F.M. transact. Vict. Inst. III p. 45.14
11. Cucumis picrocarpa
F.M. l. c.
Of both I send an extract of the descriptions drawn up in Arnhems Land & published by the phil. Institute here. I can not say to what species C. pubescens Mitch trop. Austral 11415 belongs, probably to C. jucunda, as the natives of the Balonne used the fruit for food. To ascertain whether it is the true Cucumis pubescens I have here not sufficient reliable material.
In the journals of Leichhardt, Fr. Gregory & other explorers are references to a few other Cucurbitaceae of which I have seen no specimens. I doubt however that we will have large additions to the order from Australia. Muckia scabrella, Curcubita jucunda & a few other species grow to the limits of the tropics in W. Australia. To the south of Sharks Bay it seems no species exist in Western Australia; none is found in South Australia, except Muckia micrantha in the vicinity of Lake Torrens; In Victoria we have only Sicyos & Muckia micrantha. The majority of the species therefore exist mainly in North Australia and especially in the warmer parts of East Australia.
Regardfully
your
Ferd Mueller
Bryonia laciniosa
Cucumis jucunda
Cucumis picrocarpa
Cucumis pubescens
Cucurbita micrantha
Cucurbitaceae
Lagenaria vulgaris
Muckia micrantha
Muckia scabrella
Sicyos angulatus
Trichosanthes olida
Trichosanthes pentaphylla
Trichosanthes subvelutina
Zehneria Cunninghami
Zehneria micrantha
Please cite as “FVM-62-04-24,” 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 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/62-04-24