To Joseph Hooker   1 December 1871

Melbourne bot garden

1/12/71.

 

Since I wrote last, dear Dr Hooker, I was able to secure yet for the Niagara stems of

Dicksonia squarrosa

Cyathea dealbata [&]

Cyathea Smithii,

of which you can have one stem of each for Kew and one for Mr Booth of Flottbeck, if you desire it.1

You will also get by the Niagara gigantic stems of Dicksonia antarctica and one very tall one of Alsophila Australis, if you value them for Kew or Flottbeck.

The Captain of the Niagra2 has fine accommodation for these stems and will water them on the voyage. He retains some himself for the owners of the ship, and the rest of these ferns got thus a free passage. You are entitled to select the largest specimens.

Lately the large Iridea of Lord Howe's Island has flowered. It proves a new Iris of the section Moraea, which I have named Iris (Moraea) Robinsonii in honor of my friend Sir Hercules Robinson, the Governor of Ceylon, who is promoted lately to the Governor Ship of N.S. Wales. Hence this Iris belongs to his territory now. It is in flower much like Iris compressa Thunb., on which Linné founded his genus Moraea, but the leaves and stem are as large as that of Phormium! To me it seems clear, That Kers & Endlischers genus Moraea, (but not Thunbergs) must fall together with Iris, by which means we obtain a very natural genus, ranging still wider then Sisyrinchium.3

Klatts notes on the S. African Irideae4 I have not yet seen. Our late lamented friend, Prof Harvey, never likely entering on a comparison of Iris & Moraea, keeps in your edition of his genera only Moraea up.5

I have established also a new genus of Saxifrageae from Lord Howes Island, namely Colmeiroa,6 next to Carpodetus, but the cells are one seeded, & it is differing also in some other respect Colmeiroa of Reuter is not upheld by [J ] Müller as you know.7

There are several other plants from Ld Howes Island, which I have examined for the current number of the Fragmenta, which is to appear this month.8 But what is this to the treasures of the wonderland New Guinea!

For the first time since 1847, I have no letters by mail from Europe through the sinking of the Rangoon at Ceylon.9 I trust, that all my friends & correspondents will repeat in their next months letter, what they wrote & send duplicates of any prints lost with the wreck at Point d[e] Gall[e].

Possibly Mr Bentham may have written to obtain new material; so he must kindly repeat his wishes.

The loss of Sir Rod. Murchison is a sad one to Geography & Geology.10 To me he always proved a kind condescending friend. I wished he could have lived to see Livingstone return, if indeed that brave man will really ever see civilisation again.11

Always yr

Ferd. von Mueller

 

The Captain has 2 tall Alsophilas from me. Perhaps he would spare one for Mr Booth, and take an other Dicksonia

The Australian Eclipse Expedition may bring a few new plants from Cape Sidmouth.12 I am promoting also, indeed called forth Mr Giles Expedition from the S. Austr telegraph line to West Australia, probably the River Murchison.13

 

Alsophila Australis

Carpodetus

Colmeiroa

Cyathea dealbata

Cyathea Smithii

Dicksonia antarctica

Dicksonia squarrosa

Iridea

Iris compressa

Iris Robinsonii

Moraea Robinsonii

Phormium

Saxifrageae

Sisyrinchium

See M to J. Hooker, 5 November 1871.
Niagara.
M named Iris robinsoniana in B71.12.03, p. 153-4, citing it also as Moraea robinsoniana under the joint authority of himself and Charles Moore. Bentham (1863-78) vol. 6, p. 409, rejected M's uniting Moraea with Iris , and listed it as M. robinsoniana .
Probably in the series of papers in Linnaea culminating in Klatt (1866). In B65.10.01, p. 21, M records having volumes of Linnaea only for 1847–57.
Harvey (1868), p. 372.
M erected Colmeiroa ( C . carpodetoides ), in B71.12.03, p. 149.
Reuter's genus Colmeiroa (Euphorbiaceae ) was established in 1843, but Müller (1866), p. 448, treated it as a synonym of Fluggeae, erected in 1805.
B71.12.03.
The Rangoon struck a rock while leaving Galle Harbour, Ceylon, on 1 November: 'All lives were saved, but the whole of the Australian mails, the cargo and the passengers' baggage were lost' (Argus, 27 November 1871 p. 5).
Murchison died on 22 October 1871.
The Royal Geographical Society had engaged Livingstone 'once more to revisit Southeastern Africa, and determine the hidden watershed of that vast country' (p. 249) where, 'in addition to his efforts as a Geographer [he] … will act as a pioneer in removing those obstacles which at present render the traveling of Christian missionaries … fraught with disaster and profitless suffering' (p. 264) (Murchison [1864-5]) . Livingstone was still in the field at the time M wrote (see Livingstone's 1871 field diary , http://livingstone.library.ucla.edu/1871diary/index.htm, accessed 18 January 2014).
A total solar eclipse occurred in the far north of Australia on 11 December 1871. The Sydney and Melbourne Observatories collaborated in sending a party to Torres Strait to view the event.
Giles' 1872 expedition from 23 August to 18 November 1872 was blocked by lack of water and the salt pans of Lake Amadeus . See B75.13.03 and Giles (1875).

Please cite as “FVM-71-12-01c,” 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 28 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/71-12-01c