To William Mitten   27 December 1881

27.12.81

 

I just like to mention, dear Mr Mitten, that I have sent my supplement of the Moss-list to the press, as the XI vol. of the fragm. is to be closed in 1881. I have adopted the nomenclature of Jaeger and Sauerbeck,1 though with you I would have liked to be more conservative.

Dr C. Mueller gave me some msc. additions. When the volume XI is bound, (I hope in January) I will send a copy to you, and if you then will give me any additions, annotations and corrections, I shall be beholden to you.

In my chronologic Census of plant-genera of all Australia, I have likewise arranged the moss-genera according to J. & S; the msc is gone to the R. S. of Sydney2 & in type already3 I found great difficulty with the authority of some genera, e.g. those of Dillenius.

What bryology wants more than any thing at this stage of its development is a clear and concise work on the genera; could you furnish such in conformity with the phanerogams & ferns of B. & H.?4 It would promote moss-study immensely, especially out of Europe & North America. Moreover your diagnostic language is splendid. If you can send occasionally a name of an additional moss and return a small specimen, you would add to my obligations toward you.

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

Should your moss list arrive by next mail, due middle of January, you will see that it was not in time for the XI vol. of the fragm.5

1
Jaeger & Sauerbeck (1870-79).
2
i.e. Royal Society of New South Wales.
3
See B82.02.04, later republished as B82.13.08.
4
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83).
5
M's 'Additamenta' to the list of Australian mosses compiled by E. Hampe that appeared as a supplement to the Fragmenta , vol. 11, were published as B81.13.12, pp. 107-14. This volume of the Fragmenta was not quite closed in 1881, because M was able, early in 1882, to add an additional list of moss species (B81.13.12, pp. 114-5) that he had extracted from a larger list sent to him by William Mitten; see M to W. Mitten, 15 March 1882 (in this edition as 82-03-15a).

Please cite as “FVM-81-12-27a,” 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 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/81-12-27a