29/1/83
Doubtless, dear Sir Joseph, you take a great interest as a Garden Director in the genus Begonia, especially as you made suddenly known a species so near to Europe as Socotra. Under these circumstances I beg to submit to you the only and indeed fragmentary specimen (without flowers and fruit), which I possess of an Australian Begonia, if I rightly judge it to belong to that order. I have no experience on its histology; thus a microscopic examination of the leaf would give me no clue. Indeed the plant may belong to Compositae or some other order.1 Perhaps from your world-wide experience you could throw some light on this subject. Keep this fragment at Kew, if of any interest, but let me have back a drawing (rough sketch).
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller.
Begonia
The specimen that M sent was one received from Alexander Forrest, K215369, which according to M's label, which has 'Begonia?' in pencil, was collected by 'Al. Forrest' in 1879; it was entered into the Kew herbarium in March 1883, and identified by Alex George as Velleia connata, 22 November 1976. See M to M. Fraser, 17 July 1879 (in this edition as 79-07-17); J. Hooker to M, 12 March 1883; and M to J. Hooker, 5 May 1883 (in this edition as 83-05-05a).
Please cite as “FVM-83-01-29a,” 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