From Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker   25 Dec 1874

Melbourne

Christmas

1874.

You being the author of a highly valuable pocket-volume on English or rather British plants,¹ dear Dr Hooker, you must naturally be interested in any additions, that could likely be made. Allow me to mention then, that I always found with Juncus pygmaeus also J. capitatus.

In Trimens journal 2 or 3 years ago, I pointed out, that Chenolea hirsuta in its almost glabrous form was almost sure to exist with Suaeda maritima on your coasts, and that by its tendency to a spiral twist of the upper stem it could often be recognized, without dissecting the fruit.² A minute tuft of hair in the axils allows also the plant easily to be recognized. Could not one of your assistants search carefully through the Kew collections of Suaeda maritima for finding British specimens of the Chenolea

So it might also be done with Scirpus silvaticus.³ Surely mixed with it is S. radicans? The setae of the two are very different, but who would suspect that when 2 plants, so similar in outward appearance grow together. The spikelets of S. radicans are always larger and generally singly dispersed but not so much clustered. I have found an other character, nowhere recorded: S. silvaticus has the branches of the panicle hairy-scabrous (like in my S. polystachyus), not smooth as in S. radicans.

I find, that S. fluviatilis (A. Gray) is here on many places, but perhaps only on Freshwater streams. May it not have been confounded in your islands & elsewhere with S. maritimus.

Regardfully yr

Ferd. von Mueller

Chenolea hirsuta

Juncus capitatus

Juncus pygmaeus

Scirpus fluviatilis

Scirpus maritimus

Scirpus polystachyus

Scirpus radicans

Scirpus silvaticus

Suaeda maritima