To Joseph Hooker   5 May 1883

5/5/83

 

Perhaps you will think me troublesome, dear Sir Joseph, when I once more enquire about the Norf. Isl. plants. Could they be identified?1 I cannot think, that they are all endemic. C.DC.2 even overlooked Hartigshea3 Patersonii altogether. I will give Prof. Tate a hint concerning the L.S.,4 and feel glad, that with your usual kindness you interested yourself for him. For Mr Dyer I shall send by this or next mail a photogram ♂ of aCycas from Singapore.

I thought that I had sent a specimen of Davidsonia long ago, but really I find it difficult to gain time for sorting; and have but little help in a Department so ramified so straightened and yet expected to do so much in a variety of ways for the colonists of this young country.

If the day had 48 hours instead of 24, it would be all right enough. No doubt you find that yourself. Moreover if you saw my little Cabin, where even the small bedchamber is stuck full of books, prints, and plants, you would not feel surprised if I am remiss in sending plants out. Now we are here again, pressed into the service for the Calcutta and Rome Exhibition, after only just the extrawork for the St. Petersburg and for Amsterdam has been overcome.5

I hope however to come soon to some systematic distribution of spare-specimens, when I will make it a point, to pick out all addenda to the Flor. Australiensis for Kew. Of some however I have only single samples, of others only poor specimens.

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

The genus Oncinocalyx, very near your Teucridium, will interest you. It cannot go with Hyptis, though allied.6

May the supposed Begonia perhaps be a Composite, a Senecio? I consider the leaf quite normal.7

8Is there any clue in the Kew Herbarium to the following Norfolk Island plants?

Hibiscus insularis.9

Abutilon Julianae10

Pittosporum bracteolatum11

Hartigshea Patersoni12

Elaeodendron curtipendulum,

or must the indentification be obtained at Vienne?13

 

Abutilon Julianae

Begonia

Cycas

Davidsonia

Elaeodendron curtipendulum

Hartigshea Patersoni

Hartigshea Patersonii

Hibiscus insularis

Hyptis

Oncinocalyx

Pittosporum bracteolatum

Senecio

Teucridium

1
A single undated half-sheet, f. 63, glued to f. 64, is transcribed at the end of this letter. J. Hooker to M, 25 June 1883 implies that the list was sent earlier, which suggests that the list was associated with this letter at Kew when the answer was being prepared.
2
Casimir de Candolle.
3
Hartighsea?
4
Error for R.S? M had organized signatures on a candidate’s certificate for Ralph Tate for the Royal Society of London (see M to R. Tate, 3 February 1883) and had apparently asked Hooker to act also (letter not found), to which Hooker replied briefly (J. Hooker to M, 12 March 1883). Tate was not elected FRS.
5
Calcutta International Exhibition, 1883-4; World Exhibition, Rome, 1885-6; International Exhibition of Horticulture, Imperial Russian Society of Horticulture, 1884; Amsterdam International Exhibition, 1883.
6
B83.03.02, p 69.
7
See M to J. Hooker, 29 January 1883 (in this edition as 83-01-29a) and J. Hooker to M, 12 March 1883.
8
The remaining text is on an undated sheet glued to this letter as f. 63.
9
Annotated in pencil in [?Daniel Oliver’s hand]:Endl.
10
Annotated in pencil in [?Daniel Oliver’s hand]:Endl.
11
Annotated in pencil in [?Daniel Oliver’s hand]:Endl.
12
Hartighsea patersoniana? Annotated in pencil in [?Daniel Oliver’s hand]: and Endl.
13

Endlicher (1833) described these plants, and most of his collections were in Vienna.

The name of each plant listed by M is marked with a pencilled cross to the left of the name. f. 63 is annotated top right by Daniel Oliver:from Norfolk Isd in Hb, Kew; top left by J. Hooker: Ans | June 24 J.H. (i.e. J. Hooker to M, 25 June 1883); bottom and back by Daniel Oliver: 20 June/83. I have referred to the above specimens & see no reason to doubt that they are distinct, - excepting Abutilon julianae of which we have only a bad specimen of A. Cunningham’s (not authentic) - which, as far as it goes, is not distinguishable from A. auritum. Hartighsea Patersoniana we have in fruit only. Elaeodendron Curtipendulum: F.v. Mueller's E. melanocarpum is very similar, but probably the fruit (of which we have [immature] Norf .Isld. Specimens) is different.

Please cite as “FVM-83-05-05a,” 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 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/83-05-05a