12/5/80.
Herewith I beg to send you, dear Prof. Lange, a fragment of what I called in 1852 Swainsona miniata, when I made a note on the fresh flowers, as follows. Petalum superum cum latiralibus aurantiacum, basin versus macula flava lanceolata signatum; petala infera obscure rubra infra medium flava-virentia.1
The precise locality of this plant was not recorded in the botanic Garden, but it was assumed, that it came from some place in the colony Victoria. Subsequently I felt convinced, that it was only a form of S. galegifolia, a view in which Mr. Bentham (fl. Austr. vol. II p. 217)2 concurred, who had my normal collection on loan. I doubt, whether he was correct in uniting with it S. coronillifolia (of which S. albiflora Don & S. Osborni T. Moore are mere varieties). It is my intention to elaborate anew all the Swainsonas from vastly increased material accumulated since 1864.3 At the same time I will study the limits assigned to the allied genera by Bentham & J. Hooker,4 who kept as much as possible the old generic limitations up, so as to cause no more change in the nomenclature than could be helped.
It needs not my assurance, that I will be happy to continue interchanges of our works with you, as I appreciate the value of your writings most highly. I have dispatched the 10th vol. of the fragm.
With deep regards
your
Ferd. von Mueller
Would my Eucalyptus Atlas5 be acceptable to your Academy
Sutherlandia frutescens was since 1852 also cultivated in the bot. Garden, & possibly its seeds might have been sent by mistake as Sw. miniata
Sutherlandia frutescens
Swainsona albiflora
Swainsona coronillifolia
Swainsona galegifolia
Swainsona miniata
Swainsona Osborni
No published description has been found; M listed the name Swainsona miniata without a description in B53.10.01, p. 13.
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 2.
Such analyses had been published for other groups in M's Fragmenta but no sustained analysis of the Swainsonas later than this date has been found; Fragmenta ceased with the first fascicle of the intended vol. 12, B82.12.03.
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83).
Eucalyptographia; At the time that M wrote, five Decades had been issued, B79.13.11 and the first of those listed in B80.13.14.
Please cite as “FVM-80-05-12,” 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