Melbourne bot. Garden
24. May 1862.
My dear Sir William.
I have not very much of interest to report by this mail. May being one of the most laborful months of the year, in consequence of the gardenwork & the distribution of plants to public reserves &c, I have not been able to give much attention to plant study since I wrote last. I have however issued an other number of the Fragmenta,1 which contains some curious & select things; have also prepared the greater part of a report on Fr Gregorys plants gathered in the expedition into N. W. Australia last year. Mr Gregory informs me, that also a set is sent to you;2 I shall therefore probably send the report home in manuscript, to be either appended to Gregorys journal or to be published in the Linnean proceedings, if the Society thinks the document of sufficient value for the purpose.3 This will afford an opportunity to revise it, if you deem it necessary. I had for instance no specimens to compare of Tribulus alatus, but believe that it is a widely diffused species, almost as variable as Tribulus terrestris. I have referred in the report to Pluckenet4 & to Woodward in regard to Dampiers plants.5 I find recently that Mr Moores timber No 157 recently sent home6 is Myrtus tenuifolia Sm. Of the genus Helicia we have now 5 Australian well marked species!
I am anxious to learn what you think about Osbornia7
Ever dear Sir William,
Your
Ferd Mueller.
Helicia
Myrtus tenuifolia
Osbornia
Tribulus alatus
Tribulus terrestris
B62.04.01.
that also ... to you is marked in the margin with a cross.
The report (B63.13.03) appeared in the Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh. There is no evidence that it was offered to the Linnean Society. See M to G. Bentham, 24 July 1862.
Plukenet?
Dampier (1729), Plukenet (1705). M wrote in B63.13.03, p. 480: 'some of the plants collected by ... [Dampier]... we find introduced by Dr Woodward into Dampier’s work, "Voyage to New Holland" (of which the edition of 1729 was accessible to me through the favor of the sons of Admiral P. P. King). Of other species, Dr. Woodward furnished an account in Plukenet’s "Amaltheum Botanicum," vol. iv., 1705'. [Amaltheum Botanicum is complete in one tome, but is part of the collected works of Plukenet, republished under the collective title Opera omnia botanica, of which it is tome ‘vi’, but often bound in the fourth physical volume after tomes iv and v.]
For the London International Exhibition, 1862; see International Exhibition Commissioners (1861), p. 40; that is, the catalogue of the preliminary exhibition in Sydney issued by the NSW Commissioners.
B62.05.01, p. 31.
MS black-edged; M's sister Bertha died on 7 September 1861.
Please cite as “FVM-62-05-24a,” 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