Melbourne bot Garden
24/12/64.
Dear Sir.
I have to reply to your letter of the 12 Oct.,1 arrived within the last week. The receipt of the proof sheets of the second vol. of the flora Austral I was glad to acknowledge by last mail,2 when and in mails before I offered some notes thereon. Bryophyllum calycinum is omitted in Crassulaceae. I have not seen it myself but Dr Hooker must have some authentic record of this plant as an Australian, since he enumerates it in his list of Indo-Australian vegetation, prefixed to the flora Tasmanica.3
It will not be necessary to forward in future any more copies of the flor. Austr. to Copenhagen, to Beckler or to any other place on my behalf, as I formerly desired,4 in as much as I am under no obligation to the recipients and find the distribution of works, maintained by me out of my private means for many years too ruinous to be continued. I fear, that for this reason I must also limit for the present the subscription to the genera plantarum5 to two copies; The small saldo I owe you I will send either by this or next mail.
I am thankful for the return of the Thalamiflora, which you have arranged. It is always hindersome to be deprived of any part of a collection.
I cannot well comprehend, how Myrtaceae & Compositae will find room with sundry smaller orders in one volume of the work. Even if Lythraceae, Passifloreae, Cucurbitaceae, Homalineae, Onagreae, Melastomeae, Mesembryanthemeae had gone into the second volume, I do not think the two great f[amil]ies and the unseparable Rubiaceae, Umbelliferae, Araliaceae, Loranthaceae, Caprifoliaceae could be brought into one volume, with a prospect of giving so much of their characteristic, as to do justice to them.
I anticipate, that you will find, Myrtaceae & the orders thence to Compositae will fully cover all pages of vol III & that the latter order has to be retained for the fourth volume; if Euphorbiaceae, which are ill placed in Monochlamydeae & which will have gone through J. Muellers hands before you can have finished the Myrtaceae, were accepted for the 3 vol. it would make a good complex without the Compositae. —
Pray let me be informed, whether you desire the Euphorbiaceae for the Calyciflorae or rather for the Monochlamydeae. I have seemingly a new Kennedya, distinct from K. bracteata. - Hardenbergia, Physolobium & Zichya have to be regarded as mere subgenera of Kennedya.
The sum for the draft for vol II (£100) must be in your hands by this time. Your remarks about Glycyrrhiza are interesting I am glad that case N. 14 arrived, but remain quite in incertainty about some of the others. As they have a consecutive number, perhaps you will kindly let me know what arrived
I regret, that your zealous & valuable assistant Mr Black6 had to leave the chilly climate of England, for the same reason, which brought me to Australia. I trust he will be benefitted by the fine upland air of India.
By my last letter I mentioned, that the 30 copies of the flor. Austral. had arrived & they have been distributed by Government.7
I shall commence the next number of the Fragmenta with a new genus of Tiliaceae (Michiea)8 closely allied to Glyphaea.
It is quite possible that a few cultivated plants have slipped into the Sydney Collections, but as so many of these specimens are unnamed it is difficult for me to ascertain this.
With a cordial
Adieu
yr
Ferd Mueller
Araliaceae
Bryophyllum calycinum
Calyciflorae
Caprifoliaceae
Compositae
Crassulaceae
Cucurbitaceae
Euphorbiaceae
Myrtaceae
Glycyrrhiza
Glyphaea
Hardenbergia
Homalineae
Kennedya
Kennedya bracteata
Loranthaceae
Lythraceae
Melastomeae
Mesembryanthemeae
Michiea
Monochlamydeae
Onagreae
Passifloreae
Physolobium
Rubiaceae
Thalamiflora
Tiliaceae
Umbelliferae
Zichya
Please cite as “FVM-64-12-24,” 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 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/64-12-24