1[The Fragmenta Phytoqraphiae Australis2 may be obtained from the Government Printing Office. The Government Botanist would consider the parcel of lightwood seed most acceptable because the tree ought to be extensively cultivated, for the sake of its splendid durable wood, which never warps or cracks, even when fresh sawn and exposed to the sun. The specimens enclosed by our correspondent are classified by Dr. Mueller as follows:— 1. (A). Aspidium aculeatum Sev.; 2. Lomaria lanceolata Spr.; 3, Young state of Todea Africana W.; 4. Lomaria procera Spr.; Blechnum striatum, Br.]
Aspidium aculeatum
Blechnum striatum
Lomaria lanceolata
Lomaria procera
Todea Africana
The text given here is from an editor's comment below a letter from 'TYRO' dated 'Blackwood, July 18' that refers to a previous letter to the newspaper by another correspondent concerning tree ferns found in Victoria, 'neither of which, I think, agrees with one found in our ranges. | I hope, therefore, you will satisfy my inquiring mind by comparing the enclosed specimen marked A. I enclose a few others, which you will be good enough to have named, as each are very scarce here, and to me unknown, for want of a book of reference such as Fragmenta Phytographia Australia. Is it obtainable? … I have a email parcel of lightwood seed, which I shall be happy to forward if it be of use to you.' The editor had clearly communicated the content of the letter and the specimens to M.
i.e. Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae; also misspelled in the printed text of the correspondent's letter.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Ferns from the Blackwood Ranges', Australasian, 18 August 1866, p. 615. Assuming that M's letter would have been published in the next available issue in this weekly newspaper, it is dated to 10 August 1886 as the likely earliest date it would have been sent.
Please cite as “FVM-66-08-10,” 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