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From Ferdinand von Mueller to George Story   24 July 1874

Melbourne

24/7/74.

Allow me to ask you, dear Dr Story, whether you can furnish me in a letter with a few good specimens having anthers and ripe fruit of the enclosed Althenia, described as Zannichellia palustris — so it seems — in the Flora Tasmanica.1 The piece of the plant enclosed is from West Australia, but a small fragment of apparently the same species adheres to some other water plants sent by you. The plant is most likely common in ditches near you

I am now finally working on Najadeae for the Flora (the 7th volume).2 There ought to be yet other Lemnae near you then3 L. minor and L. trisulca.

Let me hope you are well. That is the sincere wish of your regardful friend

Ferd von Mueller

Althenia

Lemna minor

Lemna trisulca

Najadeae

Zannichellia palustris

1

J. Hooker (1860), part 2, p. 43, corrected to Z. preissii in 'Additions, corrections, etc.' p. 373.

2

i.e. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7, pp. 164 ff., where the spelling is Naiadeae.

3

than?

4

MS annotation by Story: '[...]grass Zannichellia Palustris is it found at Ravensdale'.

Please cite as “FVM-74-07-24,” 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 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/74-07-24