Brisbane1
May 27. 1877
Dear Baron
But th[at] identification of species is too serious a matter for joking, I might have supposed that you were inclined to a practical mystification — Pappophorum gracile & purpurascens I know well enough, but should not have thought of referring the plant you name P. Commune2 to the genus as the awns, thirteen in number are in no degree pappose or plumose but only serrulate, and I thought would have been referred by you to Echinaria. However I am much obliged by your constant courtesy; was this species (your Commune) known to R. Brown; there is nothing like it in the Prodromus.3
A squatter from the Dawson,4 brought down examples, (dry and flowerlets) which I take to be Uraria lagopoides enclosed, as a plant which his sheep eat eagerly, their stomachs being found full of it exclusively, when slaughtered for food; also a Hoya which other sheep ate, and died poisoned by it. The leaves of H. australis which I have seen, were not so thick as the plant brought down, but I suppose neither H. H. carnosa or Nicholsoniae are found anywhere in such abundance as he represented this to be growing in; he had never seen flowers.
Yours very faithfully
Ch. Prentice.
P.S. I got a Townsville paper yesterday in which a person there was reported in a lecture delivered to have said th[at] you and others were inclined to suppose th[at] what is vulgarly called whalespawn in or5 N. Eastern Seas is of vegetable origin; he cites me too erroneously, for I have little doubt th[at] it is composed of the putrescent exuviae of the Coral Polype; the 'whale spawn' of high northern latitudes is totally different, and clearly consisting of minute living organisms.6
Echinaria
Hoya australis
Hoya carnosa
Hoya Nicholsoniae
Pappophorum Commune
Pappophorum gracile
Pappophorum purpurascens
Uraria lagopoides
Qld.
See B74.07.01, p. 200.
R. Brown (1810).
Dawson River, Qld.
our?
An item from the Townsville Herald is reprinted in the Rockhampton bulletin, 25 May 1877, p. 2, reporting on a lecture by the Rev. W. Grey at the Townsville School of Arts on 16 May in which Grey reported having received opinions 'from Dr. Prentice of Brisbane, Baron Mueller of Melbourne, Professor Darwin, Professor Geike of Edinburgh and Dr J. C. Power of that University' on his previous lecture. The 'previous lecture' on 19 December 1876 was on 'Whale Spawn' (Queenslander (Brisbane), 23 December 1876, p. 40). No letter from M to William Gray has been found.
Letter found with a specimen of Enneapogon asperatus (MEL 2131670).
Please cite as “FVM-77-05-27,” 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