Melbourne
11/8/73.
I beg to send you, dear Dr Hooker, a few fragments of Raoulia Meredithae, which has now be found on a second place, Mt Olympus, after I discovered it on Mt Field East. It is probably existing at Kew among the specimens of Raoulia Catipes, with which plant it grows promiscuously, and of which it therefore cannot be a variety, caused by climatic or geologic conditions. If you desire to give a figure of this actually new Tasmanian phanerogamic plant, then I will send better specimens, but I have, while I hurriedly write on the Monthly mailday, only these at hand.
I have furnished notes on it in a third "contribution towards the phytography of Tasmania" just forwarded to the local R.S., in which essay (if I may call the modest production such) I have given 170 species, deserving notice for the sake of new localities.1 Several are new to the island, and four of the Algae new to science. Pherosphaera I regard only as a section of Dacrydium, the disk being wanting also in D. Kirkii. Mr Bentham's proofsheets on Coniferae will only arrive by next mail; so I do not know, whether he has finally taken the same view. Of course you are aware, that our friend Dr Parlatore has reduced Microcachrys to Dacrydium.
Would you not kindly give a figure in the icones of the new Casuarina bicuspidata,2 so that we all may become better acquainted with this probably overlooked species. I have no specimen in my collection. The Boronia megastigma will be an important addition to the Cold House culture in Europe & elsewhere, as the plant is of such exquisite pervading aromatic fragrance, as it is remarkable in its stamens and stigma, and as it furthermore is easily propagated under a bell glass with moderate bottom Heat.
I am most anxious about your or Mr Bentham's views on my msc. genus Macgregoria,3 not only as it seems in structural respect a remarkable plant, altho' not showy, but then also as I am under deep obligation to the Hon. John Macgregor, to whom the plant was to be dedicated, for the manful defense of my position as Director in our local Parliament, which defense (though without avail) merits a public and lasting recognition on my part. I hope you will not be displeased, if I send occasionally a note to Dr Trimen for his journal.4 With Mr Carruthers I am not in communication. I am working on Restiaceae, which will be finished in the course of this month, but it is a labourious task to dissect numerous specimens &[c] as I have no original samples of RBrs5 plants. He has been singularly unfortunate with this order. Fully half of his 24 Restios seem not to belong to genus, they are mostly Leptocarpi.
I have kept up your Lepyrodia Tasmanica, but believe it be the genuine L. stricta. RBr's M for the South (meridies is with us the North) has misled you,6 as it misled me respecting Hakea nodosa, before I had a copy of the older volumes of the L. transactions. He included Australia Felix in M (Port Phillip) whereas it escaped his observation, that a very distinct geographic region existed, as I have shown more than 20 years ago, in S.W. Australia, while all the country east of Mount Gambier with Acacia (mollissima) decurrens and other typical plants belong to the S.E. region, to which also the lowlands of Tasmania partain.
The important new tar-oils of various kinds from Eucalypts which could cheaply be provided by the tons, will come under your notice by the samples forwarded. You misunderstood me, dear Dr Hooker, when you thought that I would unreasonably burden on you the task to forward them to Vienna! Surely that I could do direct through my agents like everything else is sent through Mess [C.] Blackith & Co that does not go to you or to Indian friends. I was under the (perhaps erroneous) impression that an annual or continuous exhibition was held in London! Be that as it may, all that I would solicit is this, to see the oils examined on refraction &c &c by Dr Gladstone or any other high authority, also on their various solvent powers &c, particularly as also last month my Laboratory was taken from me (left unused by anyone since) You are then at liberty to place the samples in the Kew Museum, as I had an other set prepared for the industrial (not my) Museum in our city.
I hope you will be able to induce My Lords at the Admiralty to let a Fregatte go from Sydney to a few months stay at N. Guinea, and let me, or if I am not strong enough, a collector go in her from here. The Marines of such a ship from a healthy spot, such as the newly discovered English Islands on the S.E. coast, could easily protect me on an ascent of Mt Stanley for getting the first alpine plants of Papua. I would leave you all the Indian forms to work out and send half the specimens to you, being myself desirous to work up the alpine species in comparison with those of the Australian Alps and the Papuan species of Australian Genera, if such occur there.
Ever with the most regardful and grateful attachment,
dear Dr Hooker,
your
Ferd. von Mueller.7
How is it that so great a man as Bentham, who described more new plants than even Linnaeus, has not become knighted, or does he decline the honor!
I send one of two specimens of Trachymene Austro Caledonica from Tasm
Dr Beccari does not seem to have reached any alpine elevations & is much engaged, so Caruel writes, in zoology.8
If we are all able to work some years longer, there will not be much left then to discover as regards actually new phanerogams in any part of the Globe, but we have to examine N. Guinea fully & Central Africa
Acacia decurrens
Acacia mollissima
Boronia megastigma
Casuarina bicuspidata
Coniferae
Dacrydium Kirkii
Hakea nodosa
Leptocarpus
Lepyrodia stricta
Lepyrodia Tasmanica
Macgregoria
Microcachrys
Pherosphaera
Raoulia Catipes
Raoulia Meredithae
Restiaceae
Restios
Trachymene Austro Caledonica
Please cite as “FVM-73-08-11,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/73-08-11