Ballina
N. Head Richmond R.1
12th Septr /81
My dear Baron,
I must first thank you for your handsome present and still more welcome letter2 both of which will be highly prized by me. I am glad the plants were of interest & shall be pleased if the Jacksonia turns out to be a new species.
I am a wanderer and a vagabond, and have as you see shifted my camp since I wrote from Yamba.3 I have not seen any of the Jacksonia about here but I purpose returning to Yamba next month when I will try to get some specimens with advanced fruit. In the mean while I can tell you that I chose the specimen as a full sized average. There were many smaller & none that I saw much larger. They grew abundantly in a fairly sheltered place amongst low scrub within a space of some two or three hundred yards square, & did not seem to me to shew any sign of being stunted.
The kindness of your letter leads me to hope that you will not think me too troublesome in sending you another specimen which puzzles me though it is so common here that I cannot suppose there is any thing of special interest in it. I suppose it must be a form of Darwinia fascicularis though the calyx lobe seems scarsely to agree & some at least of the ovaries have 4 ovules.
I should like to mention that the few plants of Drimys dipetela4 which I have observed seem to me to be strictly dioecious which is not mentioned in the Flora.5
Perhaps you would kindly say when you write whether this is usual.
I have all the volumes of the Flora except the last which I have ordered, & shall always be only too happy to make myself of any service to you in collecting specimens as far as it is in my power, but you must remember that my knowledge of Botany is most elementary and defective, and neither my eyes nor my instruments are very first rate.
I shall try to collect some mosses at which I have been much surprised in the damp scrubs.6
I may mention that I am quite a stranger in these parts, New England7 having been my domicile untill within the last two months.
I remain
My dear Baron
Yours very sincerely
T Stackhouse
Darwinia fascicularis
Drimys dipetela
Jacksonia
Please cite as “FVM-81-09-12a,” 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