To Robert Fitzgerald   7 June 1882

7/6/82.

 

The name Galeola was derived by Loureiro from Galea, a leather-helmet, dear Mr Fitzgerald, in allusion to the shape of the labellum.

Dendrobium Smillieae was dedicated to Mrs E. J. Smillie, the widow of the honorable Mr Smillie, the first Advocate General of the Colony of South Australia.1 The Lady has a particular taste for floral beauties, and as a friend of the family since the earlier part of South Australian colonisation, I named this plant to cheer up the drooping spirit, when through the successive death of two accomplished children the Lady was thrown into the deepest of sadness.2

The authority of all the Austral. plant-genera is given in the volume of the R.S.3 of N.S.W. of 1881,4 which will likely very soon appear, but I had then not established yet the genus Fitzgeraldia (the homonymous genus among Anonaceae I have found previously to be identical with the Indian genus Cananga).

G. Reichenbach stands sponsor to G. cassythoides.

Diuris Smith in the transact. of the L.S.5 IV, 222 (1798)

Bulbophyllum, Du Petit-Thouars Histoire des plantes Orchidées recueillies sur les trois îles australes d'Afrique (de France, de Bourbon et de Madagascar) t. 95 & 108 (1822)6 Sprengel changed without cause the name later into Bolbophyllum.7

Cleisostoma, Blume Bijdragen tot de Flora van Nederlandsch Indie 362 (1825)

Dendrobium, Swartz in nov. act. Upsaliens. VI, 82 (1799)

Spathoglottis, Blume Bijdragen 400 (1825)

Spiranthes, L.C. Richard in Memoires du Muséum, Paris, IV, 40 (1818)

Lyperanthes,8 R. Brown prodromus florae Novae Hollandiae 325 (1810).

Dendrobium Smillieae is limited to N E. Queensland, where in a few places it occurs in the jungle forests

Cleisostoma is recently reduced by Bentham to Sarcochilus, as suggested by me 20 years ago.9

I was greatly pleased to see your many new Orchids of W.A. appear in the Gardeners Chronicle.10 Thelymitra rubra of W.A. requires comparison with T. MacKibbinii, described last year from Victoria.11

Very regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

I am greatly pleased to hear, that your new part of the superb Orchid work12 will very soon appear. I like to purchase one copy of the new part for Mrs Smillie, now in Florence.

I have not yet made up my mind concerning the fern from Howe's Island,13 kindly sent by you.

I had no idea, that Thelym. McKibbinii might extend to W.A.

 

Anonaceae

Bolbophyllum

Bulbophyllum

Cananga

Cleisostoma

Dendrobium Smillieae

Diuris

Fitzgeraldia

Galeola cassythoides

Lyperanthes

Sarcochilus

Spathoglottis

Spiranthes

Thelymitra MacKibbinii

Thelymitra rubra

1
B67.12.01, p. 94.
2
William Matthews Smillie, only son of William Smillie and his wife Eliza Jane née Farquharson, died at Aberdeen on 23 October 1867, aged 17 (Argus, 18 December 1867, p. 4); his sister Elizabeth Smillie, the youngest daughter of the family, died at St Leonard's-on-the-Sea, England, on 4 September 1869, aged 21 (Argus, 27 October 1869, p. 4). M named the species in B67.12.01, possibly in response to news of the son's death, but the daughter was still alive at this time.
3
Royal Society.
4
See B82.13.08.
5
Linnean Society, London.
6
Du Petit-Thouars (1822).
7
Sprengel (1825-8), vol. 3, p. 681.
8
Lyperanthus?
9
Bentham maintained both genera in Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 3, part 2, p. 478, issued in April 1883 (TL2); Bentham (1881), pp. 333-55 contains a discussion of these and related genera, without however making an explicit general reduction.
10
Fitzgerald (1882).
11
B81.10.01, p. 44.
12
Fitzgerald (1882).
13
i.e. Lord Howe Island.

Please cite as “FVM-82-06-07,” 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/82-06-07