Melbourne bot. Garden, 10/1/67.
A fair opportunity permits itself, dear Professor, to send you some consignment & though I had but short warning and though I am extremly busy with additional duties for the Exhibition,1 I will not allow the ship to go without something for you & Prof. Agassiz. I send a few collections of dry plants & some unprepared Algae. It will not be before the winter possible for me to sort spare-plants regularly. I wished to do so long ago, but a succession of extra engagement prevented it. I forward also some seeds, which may prove acceptable for interchange in the Southern states. After acorns & pine seeds I have still a great longing. The Panama mail Company has generously conceded free transit for my Department. Hence facility for communication exists.
You have most generously delt with my poor works, when referring to them in the Amer. Acad. of Science's proceeding.2 For your noble likenesses3 I am most grateful. I shall always cherish them with veneration. Be not displeased, that I burden you with the kind transmission of a small sending to the bot. Society of Canada4 & the Academy of Chicago.5
I have finished the 5 vol of the Fragm. But it is not yet bound.6 It contains many remarkable plants, e.g. a Pithecolobium with 5-15! carpels, a leafless Sarcochilus, a new genus of Philydreae (Helmholtzia), a Xanthophyllum with albuminous seeds & foliac. cotyled., species of the genera Tetracera, Dillenia, Hugonia, Brackenridgea, Sloanea, Cakile, Gouania, Casearia, Euonymus, Hemicyclia, Aleurites, Connarus, Strongylodon, Oenanthe, Ophiorrhiza, Coelospermum, Eupatorium, Ageratum, Thunbergia, Ceropegia, Geniostoma, Ligustrum, Ardisia, Choripetalum, Maesa, Pouzolsia, Memorialis, Cyclicodaphne, Cinnamomum, Nepenthes, Potomorphe, Drymispermum,7 Elaeagnus, Pollia, Pholidota, Pogonia, Angiopteris, Marattia, Deparia & other genera not formerly known to be represented, in Australia. There are many new genera, Pagetia near Bosistoa with many ovules & no albumen, Hedraianthera among Celastrineae with sessile Anthers, Darlingia & Cardwellia, remarkable genera of Proteaceae, — Gillbeea a remarkable genus of Cunoniaceae, Faradaya near Vitex, Atkinsonia near Nuytsia, Halfordia near Acronychia, I have also given a complete enumeration of all known Australian filices.
Eurybia I have returned to Aster, after a careful examination of many Europ., American & Asiatic species.
I continue ever your regardful
Ferd. Mueller.
Since writing I have received the first proofsheets of Compositae of vol.III Fl. Austr.8 Bentham has too far reduced the genera. This seems to have arisen from an idea of that great phytographer that mono- (& I should add in his sense oligo-) typic genera must be avoided. I have failed to see the force of the argument.
My views lead me to fair equivaluation of genera in characters. Thus I deem Bellis & Brachycome one genus, Ozothamnus & Helichrysum, so also Aster & Olearia, Bedfordia & Senecio &c; but I cannot in adopting such amount of character for a genus bring all Angiantheae under Myriocephalus, Angianthus, Gnephosis, Calocephalus, Cephalipterum, Gnaphalodes, Craspedia & Chthonocephalus! only 8 genera. Such reductions seem to me no gain for facility of work & only augment the already overburdened synonymy.
The parcels in the Case are
1, for Chicago
2, for Prof. Lawson
3, Bot. Soc. of Canada
4, Dr. Behr, San Francisco.
The rest consisting of seed, or Orchid tubers (which if planted immediately will flower in a few month), of algae & about 1000 dried plants divided into 4 collections, the largest containing about 300 species
The vessel = Isabella Hermes9
Acronychia
Ageratum
Aleurites
Angiantheae
Angianthus
Angiopteris
Ardisia
Aster
Atkinsonia
Bedfordia
Bellis
Bosistoa
Brachycome
Brackenridgea
Cakile
Calocephalus
Cardwellia
Casearia
Celastrineae
Cephalipterum
Ceropegia
Choripetalum
Chthonocephalus
Cinnamomum
Coelospermum
Compositae
Connarus
Craspedia
Cunoniaceae
Cyclicodaphne
Darlingia
Deparia
Dillenia
Drymispermum
Elaeagnus
Euonymus
Eupatorium
Eurybia
Faradaya
Geniostoma
Gillbeea
Gnaphalodes
Gnephosis
Gouania
Halfordia
Hedraianthera
Helichrysum
Helmholtzia
Hemicyclia
Hugonia
Ligustrum
Maesa
Masattia
Memorialis
Myriocephalus
Nepenthes
Nuytsia
Oenanthe
Olearia
Ophiorrhiza
Ozothamnus
Pagetia
Philydreae
Pholidota
Pithecolobium
Pogonia
Pollia
Potomorphe
Pouzolsia
Proteaceae
Sarcochilus
Senecio
Sloanea
Strongylodon
Tetracera
Thunbergia
Vitex
Xanthophyllum
Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne, 1866-7.
Gray reviewed a number of M's publications, the most recent being B64.10.02, B64.10.03, B62.02.06 and B65.02.09, reviewed in the American journal of science and arts, series 2, vol 49 (1866), pp. 415-6, signed 'A. G.'.
These images cannot now be found.
M was a member of the Botanical Society of Canada, based in Kingston, Ontario.
No evidence has been found of contacts between M and the Chicago Academy of Sciences at this period, and his package may not have reached the Academy. In a letter that M wrote to the Academy many years later (M to the Secretary, Chicago Academy of Sciences, 7 June 1895 (in this edition as 95-06-07b)), inviting interchanges with members of the Academy, he made no mention of any earlier communications.
Copies of the bound volume were issued in February 1867 (B67.02.07).
i.e. Drimyspermum.
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3.
Isabella Hercus, which cleared out of Melbourne on 15 January 1867, bound for New York (Argus, 16 January 1867, p. 4)?
Please cite as “FVM-67-01-10,” 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