On board of the "Assam" 3/1/78.
Returning from West Australia, dear Mr Ramsay, I conduct here some correspondence on board of the mail-steamer, & have thus the pleasure of resuming my communications with you also. Mr Bentham has sent me the proof sheets of vol. VII of the Flora up to Palms and the allied orders;1 he compbines2 the Livistona Ramsayi with a new Licuala described simultaneously by Wendland from Dalrymple's Gap.3 But neither myself nor Wendland or Bentham had the flowers; hence the genus cannot be determined with safety. To me the genus Licuala of Blume seems only a subgenus of Livistona. I had given many years ago all my palms to the great von Martius, who asked for them, among them was Dallachy's specimen (in fruit only) from Dalrymple's Gap.
After the death of the great writer on palms,4 the specimens went to Wendland, who begged for them. They were thus transferred from Munich to Hanover and only a few months ago they came back.
The description of the leaves of the Licuala does not correspond with your drawing,5 because Bentham describes Dallachy's leaves as "divided to more than half the length into truncate lobes."6 Of course many palms have their very old leaves or leaflets torn into lobes, while they are in a normal state entire. Can you manage with your usual circumspectness to obtain at last flowers of this beautiful palm, flowers ♂ & ♀.
Do you know the title of any paper in the far North of Queensland, to which I could write, asking that miners &c might secure palms specimens for scientific description
Wishing you every happiness in the new year, I remain, dear Mr Ramsay,
your regardful
Ferd von Mueller
Licuala
Livistona Ramsayi
Please cite as “FVM-78-01-03,” 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 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/78-01-03