Ferndale
nr Double Bay2
15th Augst /81
My dear Baron von Mueller
As I am writing to thank you for the honour you have done me in naming such a pretty plant after me,3 I have inclosed two pieces of a Dampiera got yesterday, but I do not think it is the one you want. I fear it is the D. stricta but I cannot say as the flowers were all closed up when I got it. I will make it a point to go out on a hunting expedition this week to get D. Scottiana for you & if I succeed the flowers &c, shall be sent you in spirits — you are right in thinking D. Scottiana is rare, for altho' I have been gathering native flowers for years & got quantities of D. stricta I only now and then came across D. Scottiana, but until lately I never thought it could be new, because I always have, and still do, think you know everything about plants & concluded it must be very well known to you.
The specimens I sent you through Dr Woolls were all got about the neighbourhood here (Double Bay, Rose Bay and Watsons Bay, to the Heads) This I now send was got at Watsons Bay (near to the South Head). It is astonishing what a difference situation makes in the look of a plant; for grow them in pure sand at the tops of the hills and they look dry & hard, but let them come near the sea-breeze along the banks of the harbour & they become quite fleshy & unlike our native plants altogether.
Altho' I feel much gratified at the honour you have done me, yet I should have been better pleased if the name had been Müelleri or Woollsi, for I do not deserve the notoriety & you do.
Will you please remember my name is Harriet Scott not Helena as you address me — my sister is Helena Forde but I am, and always shall be I dare say
Sincerely yours
Harriet Scott
Dampiera stricta
Dampiera Scottiana
Please cite as “FVM-81-08-15b,” 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 27 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/81-08-15b