13/2/66.
Dear Dr Hector.
I have recently received two plants from the jungles of East Australia, which form new genera of Proteaceae, unless one should be regarded as a subgenus of Knightia. Unfortunately the account of Knightia by R Brown, Jos. Hooker & Meisner is very imperfect and so the illustration in the Linnean transactions.1 My own herbarium contains only flowering specimens gathered by the late Dr Sinclair & no fruit. Would it be possible for you to get me then for the sake of comparison some ripe fruit of the N.Z Knightia excelsa? 2
You are aware it is the "Rewa Rewa" of the natives. Seemingly the tree does not occur in the Middle Island,3 but as it is common in the north, you will, I dare say, not find much difficulty in securing the material I need. I have forwarded to you by this mail my list of Austral ferns,4 from which you will see that Dr Hooker omitted Gleichenia Hermanni & Schizaea fistulosa in his Handbook.5 Phragmites is also omitted and a few other plants
your attached
Ferd Mueller
Gleichenia Hermanni
Knightia excelsa
Proteaceae
Schizaea fistulosa
Phragmites
R. Brown (1810a), p. 194 and Tab. 2; J. Hooker (1853-5), p. 219; Meisner (1856), p. 442 or Meisner (1836-43), p. 333.
See also M to J. Haast, 13 February 1866 (in this edition as 66-02-13a).
i.e. what is currently called the South Island of New Zealand.
B66.02.01, pp. 111-42; see also B66.04.03.
J. Hooker (1864-7) dealt with the New Zealand ferns on pp. 344-87.
Please cite as “FVM-66-02-13,” 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