Melbourne bot Garden
18/5/73
The document, sent by you, dear Dr Hooker, concerning the legal claims of his Majesty, the King of Portugal, on the collections of the late Dr Welwitsch1 has caused me considerable surprise. Mr Carruthers has placed himself in a false unenveyable and ackward position particularly as a public officer by accepting and maintaining the property ship of such disputed state property of an other country.2
Your collection of documents on the Chermes (Pemphigus) vitifolii Fitch (Phylloxera vastatrix, Planchon) I have not received, but I have seen a reprint here, probably from your documents.3 I simply mention this, because you may think, that I am still, like in the last 20 years at the head of all Government matters concerning plants. Not so. Such document go now to the Agricultural Department and it is very doubtful, whether they then come ever before me. Be therefore so kind to send me always anything direct, that you intend for me, under my own name.4
Prof Planchon sent me his original essays on Phylloxera some years ago.5 I caused public notice to be taken of them in the Melbourne Economist, the proprietor and Editor of that paper being since 1847 a friend of mine in Australia, and he possessing a large vineyard himself.6 The public journals here have written much on the Phylloxera or rather Chermes, but, as only recently the insect became very destructive in Europe we have not yet adopted measures to prevent importations of growing vineplants or cuttings, though we likely are now to do so, if — as I have suggested to day in a report to Government, the several Australian Colonies will adopt simultaneously united precautionary measures. Carbolic Acid, with so much propriety suggested by you as a remedy, has been also used in the United States. I have recommended lime and soapwater, besides tests with Bisulphid[e] of Carbon, which, according to Lénormand's method I use with so much advantage in my Museum.7
I have also recommended experiments of grafting on numerous kinds of other Vitis, such as V. hypoglauca &c. Further that the introduction of insect feeding birds, such as are not hurtful, (not such as the House-sparrow, unfortunately introduced against my advise and remonstranc[e]) should be fostered and our own insect feeding birds be protected against the cruel destruction carried on against them for the sake of mere sport or childsplay.
I hope Lady Burdett Coutts will send us the nightingales, for which on request of the Acclimation Society I made a solicitation.8 Mr Edw Wilson could help in this.
I hope I am correct in restoring Candollea and forming Candolleaceae and also in abolishing Forstera in favor of Phyllachne. Pfeiffers work9 has not yet reached me, except the early fascicles & my library is too imperfect to settle the chronologic sequence of all names of plants.10 I look forward with interest to your opinion of my genus Macgregoria of Central Australia.11
Your & Mr Bentham's new volume of Genera12 will be a great boon to all of us for all time.
Please let me know, whether the case under Capt. Ridgers care by the Hampshire did arrive, Case N. 57 for Benthams use, also whether case 58 came all right by the Steamer Somersetshire.13
Always your regardful friend
Ferd. von Mueller
I trust the series of oils from Eucalyptus tar addressed to you by last mail reached you safely.14
Mr Giles is at last with his new caravane as far as Baltana15 I hope he will get over the Murchison-River16 during the cool season. I had to make enormous exertions to start him anew, i.e. to get the means.17
We just enjoyed the visit of the Duke of Genoa, the only brother of the future Queen of Italy. A more accomplished affable and modest scion of a Royal House, can not be imagined. H.R. Highness speaks seven languages.18
The case with dried plants returned by the Yorkshire came safely.
19I have reexamined Maundia from better material. I was quite correct in stating its ovules to be pendulous; and that may be sufficient for generic distinction.20 The anthers may be 2-celled as in Triglochin, but they are so irregularly placed, that it is difficult to say whether each two cells belong together.
Note for Mr Bentham
Ozothamnus adnatus D.C. is not yours but Helichrysum diotophyllum, your contains 2 distinct species H. retusum & H. decurrens.21
With best regards
Ferd Mueller
Candollea
Candolleaceae
Forstera
Helichrysum decurrens
Helichrysum diotophyllum
Helichrysum retusum
Maundia
Macgregoria
Ozothamnus adnatus
Phyllachne
Triglochin
Vitis hypoglauca
Document not found. Friedrich Welwitsch died in London in 1872 and left part of his collection to the British Museum and others. The Portuguese Government disputed his right to do so on the grounds that he was employed by that government when the collections were made, and a lawsuit (in which Hooker supported the Portuguese) ensued. The case is summarized in 'Dom Louis I, King of Portugal, v. Carruthers and another', The Times, Law Report, 18 November 1875, p. 10.
William Carruthers, head of the Department of Botany at the British Museum, was one of Welwitsch's executors and upheld the will. A compromise was reached in 1875, with the British Museum retaining a set of plants. See Swinscow (1972).
The collection of papers published as Victoria. Dept. of Agriculture (1873) is in the Library of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. It contains no information on the source of the papers.
This paragraph is marked in the margin with two lines.
The specific articles by Planchon, who wrote many articles on Phylloxera, have not been identified, but see the bibliography (Chapter VI) in Mayet (1890) for possible titles.
Andrew Murray; notice in Economist not found.
See M to J. Casey, 17 May 1873.
Letter not found.
Pfeiffer (1873-4).
M's argument for restoring Candollea in place of Stylidium and therefore re-naming the family Stylideae was one of preserving priority of names; see B73.04.02, p. 41. The sense in which Bentham (1863-78), vol. 4, pp. 1-33 used the name Stylidium Swartz (in Willdenow (1805), his edition of Linné (1797-1830), vol. 4, part 1, pp. 7, 146) is now a 'conserved name' under the current rules of botanical nomenclature, and Stylidium Lour. (1790) is not a valid name.
M was anxious to receive a reply to this question: See M to J. Hooker, 11 August 1873; M to J. Hooker, 8 September 1873 (in this edition as 73-09-08b); M to J. Hooker, 1 December 1873 (in this edition as 73-12-01b); and M to G. Bentham, 1 January 1874. He did not publish the genus (M. racemigera, B74.04.01, p. 160) until Bentham had confirmed the correctness of M's views (see G. Bentham to M, 10 February 1874); however, the name was mentioned without description in B73.04.01, p. 128.
Vol. 2, part 1 of Bentham & Hooker (1862-83) was published in April 1873.
This paragraph is marked in the margin with two lines.
See M to J. Hooker, 23 April 1973 (in this edition as 73-04-23). The only entry (12 November) for Eucalyptus oils accessioned to the Kew Museum in 1873 is the collection transferred from the Victorian Commissioners for the Third Annual International Exhibition held in London in 1873 (RBG Kew, Museum Entry Book, Kew, 1861-79, Centre for Economic Botany). However, the Kew copy of the catalogue of the exhibition contains a hand-written addition listing distillation products; see notes with M to J. Hooker, 21 April 1873 (in this edition as 73-04-21b).
Ernest Giles; Beltana, SA.
WA.
See M to D. Mackinnon, 7 January 1873.
The Duke of Genoa arrived in Melbourne on 28 April 1973 (Argus, 29 April 1873, p. 5) and after visits to some country areas and a round of dinners and balls in Melbourne, departed for Tasmania on 14 May (Argus, 15 May 1873, p. 4).
The following text, filed at RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, f. 43, is added here as a continuation or enclosure on the basis that M told G. Bentham that a note to this effect had been sent via J. Hooker; see M to G. Bentham, 20 May 1873 (in this edition as 73-05-20b).
Annotated in pencil 'vii', probably by an archivist as the MS was prepared for binding. The reference is to volume 7 of Bentham (1863-78), in which M's Maundia triglochinoides (described in B58.03.01, p. 23) is treated as a Triglochin. M had not received the proof sheets for volume 7, as Bentham did not begin printing until 1877 (see G. Bentham to M, 30 April 1877). However, M had been considering the characters of the monocotyledonous species, including Triglochin, as he prepared to send his specimens to Kew for Bentham's use (see M to Bentham, 23 March 1873), and had apparently revised his decision to transfer M. triglochinoides to T. maundii, a combination he published in B67.12.01, p. 83.
Bentham had named Helichrysum adnatum in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 628, uniting Ozothamnus adnatus and O. retusus. M published his conclusion of the status of H. adnatum in B73.06.03, p. 46.
Please cite as “FVM-73-05-18,” 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