From Richard Nancarrow to Ferdinand von Mueller   14 Oct 1880

Neilborough¹

14th October 1880

Dear Sir

With great respect I thank you for the valuable information contained in your kind note of the 10th inst.²

Herewith, I beg to enclose specimens of a pretty little yellow orchid, and a small shrub — which, I think, must be a Lasiopetalum.

Both of them are confined to the Whipstick Scrub³ and both are rare — that is to say rare in this district —

Prior to the present season I had only met with one or two examples of the shrub during all my extensive rambles through the Whipstick but a few days ago I discovered quite a little colony — twenty or thirty plants at least within a radius of fifty yards — all of them half hidden underneath the bushy clumps of a dwarf Eucalyptus. I found four or five plants of the white-flowered variety.

The little orchid is also scarce — or rather, it appears to be confined to limited areas. Hitherto I have only found it on two low hills — the slopes of which are strewed with the debris of outcropping quartz-reefs and coarse gritty sandstones. It grows in open sunny spots among thick beds of Baeckia diffusa and other dwarf shrubs

After a wet winter it comes up in tolerable profusion — but in very dry seasons I have sought for it in vain. Will you kindly tell me its name and also that of the Lasiopetalum (?)

If more specimens of either or both would be of use to you — I shall feel great pleasure in procuring as many as you may require — And if you should be desirous of having a separate collection of the flora of that singular isolated tract of sterile country known as the Whipstick Scrub — the habitat of the Leipoa ocellata⁴ and other mallee-haunting birds — I shall be happy to make it and proud to be able to render you some little service

I have the honor to be

Dear Sir

Yours very respectfully

R H Nancarrow

Baron Von Mueller CMG &c &c

Lasiopetalum

Eucalyptus