27/9/83.
After closing my letter of yesterday,1 dear Prof. Tate, I received yours of the 22. inst.2
Your Sisymbrium procumbens is very interesting, and seems well marked.3 The white and also in other individuals yellow color of the petals occurs also in the arctic Draba aurea, and as shown already by Linnaeus likewise in Raphanus Raphanistrum. I have published a note on this subject, but do not just remember where. Thus I remarked, that Capsella ochrantha is only a var. of C. cochlearina, and that Erysimum Blennodia sometimes occurs with yellow petals4. Your adding to these bicolored species also Capsella humistrata & Sisymbrium trisectum is very interesting.5
With best regards your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Capsella cochlearina
Capsella humistrata
Capsella ochrantha
Draba aurea
Erysimum Blennodia
Raphanus Raphanistrum
Sisymbrium trisectum
M wrote twice to Tate on the day before this letter: see M to R. Tate, 26 September 1883 (in this edition as 83-09-26 and 83-09-26b).
Letter not found.
Tate described Sisymbrium procumbens in Tate (1885), p. 67.
See B81.13.14, p. 137.
Tate (1883b), p. 101, reports yellow-flowered Sisymbrium trisectum. A published reference by Tate to alternate-coloured Capsella humistrata has not been found; M was probably commenting on specimens. Flora of Australia (accessed 24 September 2020) under Cuphonotus humistratus describes the petals as white to yellow.
Please cite as “FVM-83-09-27,” 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