29/6/821
The Census,2 of which I send a secont proof sheet, dear Sir Joseph, explains itself. As a Commentary to Bentham's fl. Austral.3 and to the fragmenta also it will facilitate the use of both works, particularly that of the latter. I see my way clear, if my health does not give way, to get the Dicotyledonees through the press in 1882 and the Mono- and Acotyledonees in 1883. But perhaps I may not live so long: “Der Mensch denkt und Gott lenkt!”4
My idea is, that the nearly thousand species, added gradually to the Di- & Monocotyledoneae, should appear in an eight volume as supplemental to the Flora, but it would be difficult to proceed beyond that, as the many new localities of the 8000 species would take up an other volume, and yet additions are going on. In 1862 I counselled delay for a few years of the issue of the Flora, so that we might obtain more material from North Queensland & Central Australia; but Bentham's advancing age did not render this advisable.5 So the first three volumes of the flora have become particularly incomplete. Still it must for ever remain the principal work on the Australian Vegetation. If you think well of it, the several Australian Governments might be asked to extend their subsidy once more to the eight volume; I could then send every species on loan to Kew again, added to those described, and any duplicates could be kept there. The comparison would be easy in Kew, while insertion went on, as most of the species added are endemic and all elaborated with care. A synoptical Flora could follow in Melbourne afterwards “multum in parvo”6
Mr Dyer for his magnum opus7 will have more material of Cycadeae by next mail from here.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller
I am greatly pleased, that Kew will likely bring first of all the Ottelia ovalifolia into cultivation.8
Of course the 8th volume for conformity's sake should be issued through Reeve's firm and if Bentham thought it worth his while, the about 1000 additional species would be placed unreservedly at his disposal9
I wish distinctly to point out, that the Census of the species, now in progress, does not contain all addenda at hand, and is especially defective yet from my material for the geographic columns. But I find that if I was carefully & critically to go over the vast new additional material of all the orders, in the manner in which I worked out once more lately the Pittosporeae, the &c for the XII vol. of the fragmenta,10 it would defer the finishing of the Census for several years; and in my fluctuating health (suffering each cool season much from pulmonary troubles) I might not live to finish it, and as still supplemental material will come in for a series of years, while colonisation proceeds, I can “deo volente”11 bring up the first set of arrears to the Census as a supplement in 1884. How nice it would be, if we had for all 5 or 6 principal parts of the globe something similar.
The method I initiated in 1866 for the list of 950 Australian trees published in the vol. of the Intercolonial Exhibition then 12
Acotyledoneae
Cycadeae
Dicotyledoneae
Monocotyledoneae
Ottelia ovalifolia
Pittosporeae
Tremandreae
See Kew Inwards Book 1878-1883 (RBG Kew, Kewensia) p. 380, record 152(a), date 27 April 1882: “Sir F.von Mueller | Melbourne | Seeds Ottelia ovalifolia. Packed in clay, in bottle & in paper. Germinated & flowered 1882” [‘Packed … flowered’ appears to have been added later than the original entry].
There are numerous references to sending the species or asking about its fate in M’s letters to Kew, beginning with M to J. Hooker, 15 March 1882. It is illustrated in The gardeners’ chronicle, vol 25 (1886) p. 753, (June 12, 1886) with the following text:
OTTELIA OVALIFOLIA. | As this Ottelia has now been raised in several European gardens from seeds procured by me, it may be interesting to give an illustration in the Gardeners’ Chronicle copied from my Key to the System of Victorian Plants. There should be no difficulty in naturalising this pretty aquatic in the South of Europe. The plant is also remarkable for its dimorphism, the flowers with preponderating stamens being the largest, those with preponderating styles and seeds being the smallest. Ottelia tenera is the plant in its first year’s age. The dimorphism of the genus Ottelia seems never yet to have been illustrated. Ferd.von Mueller, Melbourne.| The Ottelias constitute a very beautiful group of aquatics allied to our British Stratiotes, with bright yellow, or white, or more rarely rose coloured flowers. The whole plant is submerged except the flowers ... Most of the species are natives or tropical regions ... But the species figured (fig. 165) from a drawing made by Baron von Mueller, is an Australian plant, and few species are more worthy of cultivation in the aquarium. It appears from the account given by Baron von Mueller in the Flora Australiensis to be a native of the cooler as well as of the warmer parts of the colony, and therefore it would probably be not impatient of cultivation in an aquarium. It is a graceful plant, with white flowers nearly 2 inches in diameter.
Please cite as “FVM-82-06-29b,” 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 20 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/82-06-29b