To Joseph Hooker   January 1871

Melbourne bot Garden

jan. 1871

 

I have sent you, dear Dr Hooker, by the "Hydaspes"1 2 cases with Australian plants in a growing state; and by the "Geo. Thomson" another small case (calico-covered) is also despatched.2 The Phagus Bernaysii you may have had from the discoverer, Mr Bernays, but such plants will always be of use for interchanges. Cordyline Murchisoniae flowers when only about a foot high. I am however not quite sure, whether the seedlings now forwarded will prove C. Murchisoniae or an allied species, as several new ones are described in my Fragmenta.3

I hope this time we will be lucky in getting the lovely Prostanthera spinosa across to you; if once you have the plant safely there, it could be so easily multiplied from cuttings. It is a charming almost continually flowering dwarf pot-plant.4

The most valuable of the plants now sent is perhaps Wittsteinia vacciniacea. It reached Edinburgh alive 3 or 4 years ago, but as I have not seen any further word of the plant in the Gardeners Chronicle or in any other horticultural publication, I fear the plant is lost there. It is a truely subalpine plant which requires to be grown among mossy irrigated rocks.5

As Mr [Man]6 has such a predilection for alpine horticulture and has such experience in the treatment of alpine plants, it might be well to entrust the Wittsteinia to that Gentleman. It is readily propagated from cuttings. No doubt the plant could be naturalized on rocky forest brooks of Britain

Your regardful

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

21/1/71

 

Mr Winter has very kindly brought me the large glass box with miscellaneous plants. Many were dead and most were in the Garden before, as you may see on reference to the two Garden Indices appended to former printed papers of mine.7

The willows of the other case are a real boon! I hope to establish 50 of the kind.8 They will be also valuable on account of the correct names. I am working among Coniferae of the Garden lately. What a horrid loss of time to correct the absurd names, under which seeds and young plants are so often received from places, where no such correct nomenclature exists, as at Kew.

Parlatore has kept up too many genera (Such as Chamaecyparis [&c])9 among the Conifers.10 The Todeas I hope to procure next month, and I will also soon return your Glass case.

 

Chamaecyparis

Coniferae

Cordyline Murchisoniae

Phagus Bernaysii

Prostanthera spinosa

Todea

Wittsteinia vacciniacea

 
1
Hydaspes 'cleared out' of Melbourne on 4 January 1865; see Argus, 5 January 1871, p. 4.
2
George Thompson was scheduled to leave Melbourne on 29 December 1870; see Argus, 29 December 1870, p. 4.
3
M had described three species by the time this letter was written: Cordyline hedychioides, C. manners-suttoniae and C. murchisoniae (B66.12.04, pp. 195—6); Muir (1979) lists a later reference, C. forsteri from New Zealand (B72.13.02, p. 286), but this is a listing of the name without a description. IPNI gives B76.12.04, p. 58 as the source of this name but it is also a nomen nudam in that source.
4
See M to J. Hooker, 23 June 1870.
5
Wittsteinia is marked in the margin with a cross and the paragraph is marked with a line in the margin.
6
Probably Gustavus Mann, known to be a member of the gardening staff at Kew in the 1860s (John Smith, List of gardeners at Kew, 1840s – 1860s, f. 226. RBG Kew Archives); records for 1870s are incomplete.
7
MS annotation against this paragraph: 'Sent at Mr Winter's desire'. For published indexes of plants growing in the Melbourne Botanic Garden, see B60.01.01, B65.10.01. A further index was prepared but not printed: see file 68-09-00 in this edition. No evidence that Hooker receiving a manuscript copy has been found.
8
M had requested Hooker's help in enhancing his collection of willows (Salix); see M to J. Hooker, 23 March 1866.
9
(Such as ....[&c] is a marginal note with its intended position marked with an asterisk.
10
Parlatore (1868).

Please cite as “FVM-71-01-00,” 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 18 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/71-01-00