Mr. Charles Moore, the able Director of the Botanic Garden of Sydney, returning from a botanical excursion through the dense forests of the highlands of New England,2 discloses, for the first time, the existence of an extensive Fagus forest in that part of Australia. it covers the elevated ranges between the rivers Bellingen and Clarence, in belts from two to three miles in length. The Fagus is allied to F. Cunninghami, but the leaves are remarkably acute, their teeth smaller and more numerous; moreover the leaves attain a larger size, being not rarely 2 inches long, and measuring, in young plants, fully 4 inches in length. The subalpine nature of this Fagus country, which, in continental Australia, readily reminds of the Baw Baw ranges, is indicated by the presence of Gualtheria3 hispida. Several interesting and rare trees accompany the Fagus, for instance, Elaeocarpus holopetalus, Geissois rubifolia, Cuttsia viburnea, Croton Verreauxii, a new Lomatia (L. lasiantha, F.M.),4 etc. The new Beech is to be described as Fagus Moorei, in the thirty-sixth number of the 'Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae.'5
Ferd.Mueller.
Melbourne Botanic Gardens, Dec. 26, 1865.
Croton Verreauxii
Cuttsia viburnea
Elaeocarpus holopetalus
Fagus Cunninghami
Fagus Moorei
Geissois rubifolia
Gualtheria hispida
Lomatia lasiantha
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Fagus Forest in New England, Australia', included as 'Correspondence' in Journal of botany, British and foreign, vol. 4, p. 123 (B66.04.02), of which Seeman was the editor.
NSW. Moore was in the area in October 1865 (Sydney morning herald, 2 November 1865, p. 3). The collecting numbers on the herbarium sheets at MEL suggest that Lomatia (collection numbers 128, 136, 130), was collected on the same trip as the new Fagus (numbers 132, 133).
Gaultheria?
No formal publiction of this name by M has been found; but see B66.02.02, p. 134 where M named the variety Lomatia fraseri var. velutina from specimens collected by Moore from this locality.
B66.02.01, pp. 109-10.
Please cite as “FVM-65-12-26,” 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