To Alphonse de Candolle   24 October 1883

24/10/83

 

It may be of interest to you, honored Sir, to learn, that on my representations the Government of this Colony has purchased the Sonderian collections; these have arrived in 38 cases, and I shall next week unpack these treasures in the Museum of my establishment. 1 I bring this under your and your excellent sons consideration, as you may wish me to contribute also from the Sonderian collection, as well as from my own Australian and Extra-Australian Herbarium to the material of future monographies, which I will be happy to do, as I did for the Cucurbitaceae. 2 For a monography of Myoporinae I have 80 plates drawn; but only in 1884 they will be lithographed. If you like to have the descriptions in the "monogr. phanerog." before I publish them in my independent illustrated Monography (collateral to the Eucalyptography) I will be happy to send you the msc., and I could citate then the Monogr. Phanerogam. — But in making this frank and disinterested offer, you will kindly understand, that I do not for a moment wish to be intrusive. Many species have been added since the Myoporinae in the 5th vol. of the Flora Australiensis 3 appeared, and some corrections have to be made. The text would be less than Juncagineae 4 and Alismaceae 5 taken together as the specific descriptions need not be very extensive; the few Extra-Australian Myoporinae I have in my collection here. 6

Regardfully your

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

Has the question about the appearance of Lam. ever been set right by Furnier.7

 

Alismaceae

Cucurbitaceae

Juncagineae

Myoporinae.

1
See M to G. Berry, 20 October 1883.
2
Near the beginning of his extensive monograph on the Cucurbitaceae, Alfred Cogniaux (1881), pp. 327-8, listed the numerous herbarium collections on which he had drawn. The Melbourne collection is not mentioned, but M specimens were cited from the herbaria at Brussels, Kew, Paris, London (British Museum), Edinburgh and Florence, as well as some attributed to him with no herbarium stated, presumably those that went direct to Cognaiux (see M to A. de Candolle, 24 October 1878).
3
Bentham (1863-78).
4
Micheli (1881a).
5
Micheli (1881).
6
M never published text to accompany the lithographic volume B86.13.21, which is described as volume 'II'.
7
M is following up a comment in A. de Candolle to M, 27 July 1882 (in this edition as 82-07-27a): 'If Fournier should succeed in finding out the dates of each number of Lamarck, he will likely publish them in the Bulletin de la Société botanique de France.' No reply from de Candolle has been found, and Fourier did not publish notes on the publication dates of Lamarck's volumes in the Bulletin.

Please cite as “FVM-83-10-24b,” 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 18 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/83-10-24b