Parramatta1
April 28/68.
My dear doctor,
I am much obliged for the kind article from the Launceston paper.2 I forwarded last week some seeds of Angophora cordata: I will send more by and by. The seeds of Villarsia came from the V. parnassifolia of the Manly Swamps.3
Will you please give tell4 me whether the enclosed grass from the Darling is an Eleusine?
I am very much puzzled about the plant of which I enclose a specimen. It is growing in a friend's garden near Parramatta, & is said to be a native of China. It has a straggling habit, leaves rather fleshy, alternate, with two spines under the petiole, or one on each side axillary. The flowers are white, the petals spreading, stamens very numerous & unequal, style long and thick with four or five parted stigma. The flowers grow on the tops of little branches, and below each flower there are many small leaves, forming a kind of involucre. I am not sure whether the seeds ever ripen here, but I fancy the seed vessel has a solitary seed, & the exterior has spines. The flower does not seem to have any calyx, or rather it has about eight sepals & no corolla. Is it a Flacourtia, or Phoberos? Or is5 possible that the flowers are abortive from appearing at the autumnal season instead of the spring.
I feel very anxious about the plant, as I never saw any one like it elsewhere, & I am told that the late Mr Fearon brought it with him from China. The leaves are similar to some of the Hoyas, & Mrs Fearon always called it Hoya, but of course this is incorrect
I hope you will be able to throw some light on the subject.
Yours very sincerely
W. Woolls
Angophora cordata
Villarsia parnassifolia
Eleusine
Flacourtia
Phoberos
Hoya
Please cite as “FVM-68-04-28a,” 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