Melb. bot. Garden
12/6/68.
I regret very much, dear Dr Hooker, that I cannot comply with your wish of giving a concise account of Mr Browns three Livistonas or rather his 2 Livist. & 1 Corypha.1 I know only the latter well, it being the only one of Victoria and indeed even that one cannot be found within 250 miles from Melbourne (as the road goes)
Leichhardt and myself think, that Livistona inermis is the tall palm, which even in open plains occasionally forms noble groups in Arnhem's Land. Amidst the hordes of barbarians there & never for a moment safe of my life, I could not stay (even had the party ever halted) to cut down the palms, & when I saw them at the camps I found nothing better of flowers & fruits than what I sent. In my garden of course these palms have not flowered yet. Livistonia2 humilis is said be a N. S. Wales species, but that is a mere hearsay, because RBr's T in the Prodromus3 gives us no clue & unfortunately excellent as this great mans works are his diagnoses of species are often worthless, like several other 100,000 worthless diagnoses with which the science of botany is unfortunately encumbered. I doubt very much that Livistona humilis is always dwarf. I rather think that it flowers in a comparatively early age & is a tall palm like the rest. Had I known your wish two months ago, I might have helped perhaps to clear up the obscurity, which overhangs these palms, but after several request of the great and venerable von Martius I have sent to that excellent man the whole of my Australian palms on loan, 6 or 7 large packages, comprising 17 species. Unfortunately the whole material is imperfect, except that of the Seaforthia Alexandrae,4 because I never stayed myself at any of the spots where palms grow to watch them. From RBr's notes it would appear that differences are to be found in the site of the embryo. I will ask a friend living near Illawarra, where Cunningham speaks of Livistona humilis, whether he can aid the enquiry. Von Martius wished more particularly to see the Australian palms to gain a more intimate knowledge of the limits of some of the Asiatic genera & I have asked my venerable patron to work up the species transmitted to him on the occasion.
I have in former years sent repeatedly large lots of seeds to Kew, always with them various kinds of Proteaceae and Epacrideae. But I was informed, that there was no room for them at Kew; hence discontinued sending. Unfortunately I am here located in a poor spot for Proteaceae and the number, producing fruit in my Garden, is not large. Such as I have to offer I am happy to send now. I instructed Maxwell, who is in the best country for Epacrideae & Proteaceae, to send seeds of all to Kew.5
You will be pleased to learn, that the Falkland Island Tussok grass has at last been raised by me from the seeds you lately sent.6 This proves, that it will be best in future to send to any place the seeds and not the living plant. Indeed as my plants are yet very small I should feel indebted for an other instalment of these seeds. It is likely to thrive in our alps and perhaps in the fern tree gullies here.
With regardful salutation
Ferd. von Mueller.
Corypha
Epacrideae
Livistona humilis
Livistona inermis
Livistonia humilis
Proteaceae
Seaforthia Alexandrae
No letter from Hooker requesting this information has been found.
Livistona?
'T' was used in R. Brown (1810) to indicate 'Littus intra Tropicum’, i.e. the coast of Queensland and the Northern Territory westward to Arnhem Land (Stearn (1960), p. xix).
Seaforthia alexandrae is not listed in IPNI, but M did name a palm Ptychosperma alexandrae (B65.07.03, p. 47), placing it in the section Seaforthia.
George Maxwell, at Albany, WA.
See M to J. Hooker, 27 July 1867 (in this edition as 67-07-27a), and 31 March 1868 where the arrival and germination of Hooker's seeds of Dactylis caespitosa are mentioned.
Please cite as “FVM-68-06-12,” 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