To William Mitten   15 March 1882

15/3/82.

 

Your list of Australian Mosses, dear Mr Mitten, will be placed to morrow before the R.S. of Vict.1 The whole is copied, except the Polynesian portion, the transcript of which I have presented in your name to the L.S. of N.S. Wales.2

It was necessary to rewrite the whole, as the typographers here would not be able to make out the abbreviations and many of the botanic words. I have besides spent several days, to add to the quotations and localities, so far as this could be done with safety. All this impresses me still more with the persuasion, that a critical reexamination of all the species would be needful. You have for such purposes Hampe’s collection near you, which, I suppose, would be obtainable from Carruthers on loan; as regards Dr C. Mueller’s species, there would be doubtless difficulties about the exact recognition of many of such, as are not contained in any British Collections, inclusive Hampe’s. You have cleared away already many surplus-species; but I feel convinced, that many more will have to be struck out yet. Geheeb’s particularly seem not sound.

As you placed your list unreservedly at my disposal, I have put the whole of the diagnoses in the nominative & made some other slight changes.

The printing both here & in Sydney will soon to proceed, so that you ought to get in a few months copies.

I am glad, that you named no species after the miserable, worthless collector, Karsten, who was as a countryman recommended to me by Prof Roeper of Rostock. The man had a large sum from me, for which he collected almost nothing.3

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

Of course Karsten is no longer employed.

Are Phascum exiguum, minutum & cristatum the smallest mosses of the world?

 

Phascum cristatum

Phascum exiguum

Phascum minutum

1
Mitten (1883). The meeting of the Royal Society of Victoria on 16 March 1882 was the Annual Meeting, at which no papers were presented. Mitten's paper was presented at the following meeting, 20 April 1882. Meanwhile, M extracted the species not already in his supplementary list of mosses (B81.13.12, pp. 107-14) and added them to his list with a note indicating that they were received after the main list was set in type (B81.13.12, pp. 114-5).
2
Linnean Society of NSW; see Mitten (1883a).
3
See M to J. Müller, 29 March 1882, for an account of the problems with the collector Karsten.

Please cite as “FVM-82-03-15a,” 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 24 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/82-03-15a