To William Mitten   12 February 1881

12/2/81.

 

It affords me much pleasure, honored Sir, to transmit to you a copy of a list of cryptogams, in which your honored name predominates as an authority.1 The Algs have appeared already by Sonder (1050 spec.) the fungs are under the press by Cooke, chiefly from Berkeleys determination. (900 sp.)2

Since the death of my adored friend Dr Hampe, it will be necessary, that I should enjoy the privilege of entering into regular communication with an other Bryologist, and I therefore venture to ask, whether you are willing to examine without much delay any mosses, which from various parts of Australia I might still be able to accumulate. If so, would your other engagements as a leading bryologist of this age enable you to bestow on material, forwarded by me, always early attention?3

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

Would you oblige by supplementing the present list of Mosses by those of Tasmania? I do not wish merely to transcribe it from your important essay of 18604 without critical reference to recent literature; besides you may be in the possession of other supplementary material. Jaegers index5 seems merely a compilation, though an excellent guidance; moreover it is incomplete and partly already behind time.

B81.13.12, pp. 105-21, especially pp. 108-15, listing mosses.
The lists were published as supplements to vol. 11 of M's Fragmenta phytographiae australiae: Sonder (1880), Cooke (1881).
Hampe, who died on 23 November 1880, prepared the supplement on mosses for vol. 11 of M's Fragmenta (Hampe (1881). Mitten responded positively to M's request (see M to W. Mitten, 24 May 1881) and the section on mosses in M's 'Additamenta' to the various Supplements includes at the end (pp. 114-5) a list of additional Australian species supplied by Mitten but not received by M until after the rest of the list had been printed.
Mitten (1860).
Jaeger & Sauerbeck (1870-9).

Please cite as “FVM-81-02-12,” 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 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/81-02-12