Richmond1
Oct 19/78
My dear Doctor,
I am sorry to find that you are still indisposed, & hope soon to hear that you are yourself again.
The two varieties (?)2 of Nephrodium decompositum differ principally in the rhizome & the shape of the segments of the fronds,3 The typical one has a creeping rhizome & toothed segments of the fronds, whilst the other has a short rhizome with acuminate or sharp segments of the fronds. I enclose fragments of each & also of N. microsorum from Norfolk Island, & of one which poor Macgillivray sent me from Clarence River4 marked var. marginans5 which I suppose belongs to the acuminate form. The rhizomes which I sent you some years since, were procured by our dear friend Mrs Calvert.
With respect to Polypodium punctatum, the form here is the ordinary P. rugosulum, which appears less soriferous & more coriaceous than the Hypolepis tenuifolia of Norfolk Island & Northern Australia. My specimen is from Norfolk Island, in which you will see that the position of the sori is marginal, which is not the case in P. rugosulum. I do not know the habit of H. tenuifolia, but P. rugosulum has a straggling & almost climbing habit. It is also harsher in texture.
I hope you recd the fossils which I sent by the last mail.6
Yours very sincerely
W. Woolls
P. S.
I think you will have to make another Alsophila. I could fancy A. Cooperi to be a small variety of A. excelsa, but not of A. australis. Perhaps some friends at Illawarra or Kiama7 may procure fronds […]8 had my specimens, but my impression is that the venation of A. excelsa & cooperi is more forked than that of A. Australis.
Alsophila australis
Alsophila Cooperi
Alsophila excelsa
Hypolepis tenuifolia
Nephrodium decompositum
Nephrodium microsorum
Nephrodium microsorum var. marginans
Polypodium punctatum
Polypodium rugosulum
NSW.
The '(?)' is Woolls's.
of the fronds interlined here and below.
John MacGillivray spent his last years at Grafton, NSW.
Variety name not found as a formally published name.
Letter not found.
NSW.
illegible – MS damaged.
MS found with specimen Lastreopsis decomposita [original label: Aspidium decomp.] collected by Louisa Calvert née Atkinson and sent to M by Woolls (MEL 1560890).
Please cite as “FVM-78-10-19,” 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