To Edward Ramsay   25 August 1875

Melbourne, 25/8/75.

As you suggested, dear Mr Ramsay, I have written respecting vegetable fossils to Prof. Leversidge,¹ to whom as Hon. Secr. of your R. S. I had at the same time to express my gratitude for my election as Hon Memb. into that union, an honor, which I highly value.²

The Macrozamia, named in Bull's Catalogue³ M. plumosa is merely my M. Pauli Guilielmi, described by me in 1858 in the Fragmenta⁴ this has been pointed out also in the Gardeners Chronicle by Dr Masters very recently.⁵ I never saw it with such long points to the fruitscales before. Perhaps the locality, from which you got this plant, is new. I should like to get male cones from that spot also. It was named after Prince Paul William, the brother of the King of Wuertemberg, who in 1858 visited Australia for ornithologic researches, which H.R.H. had carried on ever since the wars of the first Napoleon.

Mr Hartmann has sent me various palms from Towomba,⁶ but I believe none to be new. He sent Ptychosperma Alexandrae & P. Cunninghami.⁷ The true P. elegans (a very slender spec) I know only from Edgecombe Bay. Ptychosperma was established by Labillardière in 1809 on a New Caledonian or Indian Palm, is therefore by one year in advance of Seaforthia of R Brown.

I was awaiting your new material from the North and then thought to go through the rest of my palms.

Mr Hartmann sent also Kentia monostachya from Towomba. Should you write to him, you might kindly ask him to forward me once more a flower spi[ke] leaf & some seeds of any of the species, about which yet doubt exists.

I am still most anxious for general collections of plants from any place in N. E. Australia.

Regardfully

Ferd. von Mueller

Kentia monostachya

Macrozamia Pauli Guilielmi

Macrozamia plumosa

Ptychosperma Alexandrae

Ptychosperma Cunninghami

Ptychosperma elegans

Seaforthia