Cometville1 April 26 1879
Dear Baron von Mueller
I hope you have received the last collection I sent you2 by this time. I have had another run about the ranges here and have come across a very fine acacia which I have not seen before, and which I cannot find in the Flora. It belongs to the section Racemosae, it has large oblong phyllodia 4 to 6 inches long, and 2½ to 4 inches wide, prominently 1 nerved and penninerved, and the rascemes are many flowered, and as long as the leaves, the whole plant glabrous or glaucous, the bark is dark and hard. I have not seen the fruit: it is a very rare shrub here. I have also found a very interesting Solanum. The whole plant, with the exception of the peduncles and flowers covered with innumerable, straight brown prickles nearly half an inch long The flowers are smal, blue in a compact, terminal raceme: the peduncles and pedicels are densely tomentose, and the leaves are broadly oblong, cordate at the base, and deeply lobed or pinnatifid, green above, while tomentose underneath. I have not seen the fruit but will send sample of plant soon. The leave are 4 to 6 inches long and 3 to 4 inches wide. Very rare here. After sending away my last collection I found in looking over the duplicates that my no. 3082, which I believe I sent as a panicum is evidently a Lapago;3 I would suggest the name of L. eristata.4 I[s] my acacia n. 3043 A. Stenophylla, Cunn. Acacia ns. 3028 & 3056 are valuable timber trees, I should like to be sure of their correct names. I presume n. 3030 is Hibiscus radiatus? Do you know the acacia from the Barcoo district5 known there by the name of "gidgy"? It has a stinking smell, and a wound caused by it is said to fester suddenly and become very troublesome. There is another tree, I believe one of the acacias from the same district know as "boree" What A is it? They yield valuable timber for cabinet makers. Which of the Eucalypts is the "Coolibah" of Queensland explorers? it grows along the banks & beds of rivers. I enclose a fragment of the prickly Solanum above refered to.
Trusting you will excuse my interrogations which I merely make with a view to the utilisation of the trees.
I am Dear Baron
Yours Sincerely
P. A. O'Shanessy
Aristida n. 3068, which I believe to be a new sp. I have named A. tomentosa, if you have not it named already.6 N. 3083 is perhaps a variety.
Acacia Stenophylla
Aristida tomentosa
Hibiscus radiatus
Lapago eristata
Panicum
Solanum
Qld.
P. O'Shanesy to M, 15 April 1879?
Lappago?
This name has not been found (APNI, IPNI, each accessed 30 January 2022).
Qld.
This name has not been found ((APNI, IPNI, each accessed 30 January 2022).
MS found with a specimen of Solanum semiarmatum (MEL 12124). MS annotation by M: 'Native names of Eucal?'
Please cite as “FVM-79-04-26,” 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