Melbourne 12/8/73
May I ask you, most honored friend, to send me a leaf, a flower and a capsule of Ricinocarpus major, described from Verreaux's specimen in your collection. I am just preparing an essay on some new and rare Tasmanian plants for the publication of the Royal Society of Tasmania,1 and am eager to give notes on this Ricinocarpus from my own inspection.
I use of course your and your incomparable fathers prodromus2 daily, and it must be a triumph to you, that this work has made more new plants known than any other, and more than any other will hereafter. It is not likely that many thousand more phanerogameous plants will be found when once N. Guinea, Central Africa & a few other main regions have been searched, and that will surely be accomplished before the end of the century.
I have almost finished the elaboration of the Australian Restiaceae & will have finished the Cyperaceae before the end of the year.3
Should you desire for any future volume of the Prodromus any material, I will gladly furnish it.
With best regards
Ferd. von Mueller.
Cyperaceae
Restiaceae
Ricinocarpus major
B74.13.05; see p. 59 for Ricinocarpus major; M does not mention a specimen received from de Candolle there and no other mention has been found.
A. P. de Candolle (1823-73).
M's major treatment of Restiaceae, begun in B73.08.01, pp. 64-101, concluded in B74.09.02, pp. 236-8. For major treatment of Cyperaceae, see B74.09.02, pp. 238-40, B74.10.01, pp. 241-3 and 249-52, B74.11.01, pp. 255-74, B75.02.01, pp. 8-22, concluded in B75.03.01, pp. 23-40. In each case there was some additional discussion in later fascicles. Major treatments resulted from M working up groups in preparation for despatch to Kew for use in Bentham (1863-78); see Lucas (2003).
Please cite as “FVM-73-08-12,” 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