10/9/81.
With much pleasure do I send to you, dear Mr Bailey, on the request of our friend, the Rev. B. Scortechini, the byefollowing Certificate for his Candidature of the L.S., which doubtless you & the Rev. Tenison-Wood will also sign.1 I am glad that so worthy a worker in the fields of religion & natural science will join the L.S., which now soon will celebrate its centenary Jubilee.2
I have nothing of prominent interest to communicate concerning QL.,3 in which you are specially interested, but shall have an other number of the Fragmenta out by December.4 The meliaceous tree, concerning which I wrote to you as occurring on the Wild River5 is perhaps as a sub-genus to be placed into Dysoxylon, but that I can only determine when I get ripe fruit. It is very near a New Guinea Dysoxylon caulostachyum6 described lately, but the calyx is completely closed & eggshaped before the flower expands. This is quite unique in Meliaceae, as you may know, but the flowers from the stem occur also in Dys. oppositifolium of QL., and in D. spectabile from N. Zealand and some Java & Papuan species.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller
Mr Scortechini says that Dr Bancroft & Mr Bernays might sign the application paper, as the Rev T. Woods will be back only about Christmas.7
I sent a proof of the new number of Fragm8 to Scortechini, and hope the lot of copies will be out this week.
Dysoxylon caulostachyum
Dysoxylon oppositifolium
Dysoxylon spectabile
Scortechini was proposed for the Linnean Society of London on 1 December 1881 by M, Bailey and L. A. Bernays, and was elected on 19 January 1882 (see certificate, in this edition as 81-09-00b).
The Linnean Society celebrated its centenary in 1888.
Qld.
B81.13.02?
Qld. M's letter not found.
caulostachyum interlined.
Woods spent part of 1881 in north Qld.
B81.08.03?
Please cite as “FVM-81-09-10a,” 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