To Ralph Tate   20 October 1883

20/10/83

This day, dear Professor Tate, I received the proof-slips of your very able article on Kangaroo-Island,¹ and as I was not pressed with official work this (Saturday) afternoon, I at once revised the proof. The article is most varied in its information, even geographical (a new Cape &c²), so that it will be read even with interest at the geographic Society, and if you will in due time send me a separate copy in print, I will, if you like, propose you F.R.G.S.³ — If the article was not already in type, and therefore types became locked up, I would advise to keep it in type for a few weeks, til you had revisited the island, as likely lots of annuals would readily come under your discriminating view there.

I hope you will not be displeased, that I took some liberty with the commata, but I was tempted to strike out a number and put in others &c. You will kindly understand, that this is not meant as a special correction up on your particular manuscript, but merely an upshot of a warfare, which I have been weighing for years against English interpunctation &c, but in which attacks I have as a rule been beaten by the English typographers, print-readers &c.

Now, in no language in the world except the English, a comma is put alongside such an ordinary conjuction word as "and", when it simply combines two substantives, in which "and" and the comma are equivalent though the comma does come with the "and", when the latter unites two sentences, each having a verb. To put commata before and behind such words as "however" disturbs the flow of thoughts in reading, and some English Renovators in language, feeling all this anomaly, went as far as to abolish all commata, thus falling from one extreme into an other, and depriving us of commata &c altogether. Perhaps you are not inclined to enter into linguistic philology; but to a foreigner this peculiarity of the English language comes very strange. I have succeeded in abolishing such words as Eucalypti for Eucalypts, photographs for photograms, membranaceous for membranous &c &c.

The hyphen is much through me coming into use to unite two substantives, instead of putting one into the genitive or adjective, exempli gratia Murray-River or Murray's River, West-Australia or Western Australia

Peron, speaking of Cassowaries, must have seen Emus in Kang. Isl.⁴ It is quite refreshing, to read such a good sense from such a man so long ago, especially as he was working under Baudin so disadvantageously. The Echidna from Kangaroo-Island (or rather Trachyglossum) seems quite a distinct species; at all events it is different from the two S.E. kinds.

Would you not allude to the desirability of K. I. for forest-reserves, where timber could be shipped? The importance of the island for cereal crops in favorable places, and the readiness of naturalizing Luzerne, clovers & other leguminous fodder-plants as feeders on lime is apparent, and the humid air would make them grow probably everywhere!

I do not understand all your remarks on Xanthorrhoea; can there be some confusion? Cakile must have come with Ballast. It has been gradually spreading on its own accord along our coasts, on places where it formerly not existed. Once here the seeds would be more and more washed about every year.

Could Cassytha have been drifted across by sea? The saltwater possibly would not injure the berries! Of course its germination on soil would be much easier than that of Loranthus on trees! Perhaps birds took it across undigested.

How strange that RBr.⁵ did not collect more on K. I.; but he probably did not gather a second time, what he might have had from the mainland before.

Euc. cosmophylla on the upper Mt Lofty ranges⁶ is not a plant of humid ground.

I have some suspicion, that Papaver aculeatum came to us from S. Africa, ever since I was the first to identify the African & Australian plants 25 years ago as one. Mt McDonnell 984' high!⁷ did you ascend it? Euc. cosmophylla I learn has been found 35' high.

Have you my translation of Wittsteins "organic constituents of plants" with addenda by me?⁸ I could offer you a copy. If you gave an order to your bookseller, he would be able to get for you a copy of the new and enlarged American edition of the "select plants for industrial culture and naturalisation"[.]⁹ I shall probably have but few copies; it is inexpensive, and you would find it useful for reference. It will be out in Detroit, Michigan, at the end of 1883 in Mr George Davis publishing establishment. This is the seventh edition.¹⁰ I had no financial interest in any of them.

Should Solanum nigrum, Lepturus incurvatus and Gnaph luteo-album¹¹ not be considered as Alliens?

I hope your health is better; my cough is still very violent, and seems not inclined to abate! With one, who descended from phthisic parents, this is a matter of seriousness. However as I am alone in the world, if I pass away, I shall not be missed much, unless it be by a few sterling scientific friends

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.

Centipeda orbicularis ought to be in Kang. Island; it is more prostrate than C Cunninghami; both grow often together.¹²

Cakile

Cassytha

Centipeda Cunninghami

Centipeda orbicularis

Eucalyptus cosmophylla

Gnaphalium luteo-album

Lepturus incurvatus

Loranthus

Papaver aculeatum

Solanum nigrum

Xanthorrhoea