From A. Camara to Ferdinand von Mueller   5 June 1881

Ballina,¹ June 5th 1881

Dear Baron,

I wrote to you few days ago² from this place acquainting you as I sent you from here a case containing fungus, mosses, Algae, etc, and also some specimens from a Alsophylla³ that I found here, which in my opinion was different in many characteristics from A. australis & A. Leichhardtiana, the only ones that habitat in all that great extension of country lying between, some distance from the head of the navigation of the Richmond & the boundary of Queensland, but which I have never met with in any other place about the said water-way.

Now I write to you this solely to give you some particulars with reference to that, strange to me, Alsophylla, which I could not send to you at the time that I forwarded the specimens.

I have found a patch of the said plant in a secluded spot about a mile from the ocean, and I am under the impression that it is neither A. australis, or Leichhardtiana, unless it may be a form of the last. A. australis I have always observed in every part of Australia with a stout caudex & many fructification fronds, but the one which specimens I sent to you, notwithstanding its growing in a humid & rich soil & well sheltered by large trees & vines, has a trunk comparatively slender & hardly any fructification fronds are seen in a grove of hundreds old plants; also, I think, the sporangia of the two species is different. Moreover, the base stipes of my specimen are of a distinct colour, exceedingly covered with hair & much less prickly. The only character on which agree this A. & A. australis is being clothed with the base of the old stipes, but even in this peculiarity the A. that I have found here [surpasses] the A. australis. Taken in comparison with A. Leichhardtiana, in a general point of view, there are many affinities between the two, but considered in details the caudex & stipes of my A. are more stout that the other, the base of these less prickly, & more covered with long, thick hair; & on the colour of this offer a great contrast: that of A. Leichhardtiana being rather whitish while the other is deep brown-reddish. As much as my memory helps me there is a notable difference between the two sporangia. Another circumstance worth of notice is that A. australis, to my knowledge only is found very sparingly scattered on the forest of Eucalyptus, Tristania, & Casuarina, situated between the Richmond & Tweed Rivers, & the habitat of A. Leichhardtiana further northward near & on the last-named river, growing in more or less thick patches, & always in the brush forest, where the soil is rich; & I have seen it plentifull & of full height in very elevated situations.

The tallest specimen of this sp. of A. that I have sent you samples of stipes & pinnae with & without fructification, is from 12 to 14 feet.

I submit to you, Dear Baron, all these considerations & I shall be under obligation to you if you would inform me in a convenient opportunity the results of your examination of the specimen that previous to this I have sent to you

I am sincerely & respectfully yours

A. Camara

Alsophylla australis

Alsophylla Leichhardtiana

Casuarina

Eucalyptus

Tristania