To Ralph Tate   30 November 1883

Mt. Macedon,1 30./11/83.

 

I replied to your Kang. Isl. letter yesterday,2 dear Prof Tate, and revised also the proof of the several new plants. If not too late, you might make a slight alteration in the definition of the Loranthus; as some times 2 flowers occur on a stalk, it would be better regarded as a peduncle, than as a pedicel.3

You are quite right in identifying Trithuria submersa and Stipa teretifolia.

So soon as I return to Melbourne I will look up some of your desiderata. The whole will be a matter of time. The lithographer in the Mines Department4 was ill; so we have not commenced yet the drawing of fossil leaves;5 as I am poorly yet, it will be best to keep back the Central Austr. fossil leaves for the present, unless you have duplicates of each.

The lithographer is new to this kind of work; so I have to spend some time with him, and will take the miocene leaves from the Bacchus Marsh District6 first, which are imbedded in an indurated ferrugineous clay; after he got a little experience, I shall be exceedingly glad to take yours up also, if you will kindly provide the material.7

My general health is somewhat invigorated in the pure light air; but my cough remains obstinate.

Regardfully your

Ferd von Mueller

 

Are no fruits with the fossil leaves of C. A.?8

 

Loranthus

Stipa teretifolia

Trithuria submersa

1
Vic.
2
See M to R. Tate, 29 November 1883.
3
See B83.14.02, p. 109, where Loranthus Murrayi is described. M's suggested correction evidently did not arrive in time, since in the paper, as published, the stalks are still referred to as pedicels.
4
Richard Shepherd.
5
See also M to R. Tate, 17 November 1883 (in this edition as 83-11-17a).
6
Vic.
7
No work by M describing Bacchus Marsh fossil plants has been found.
8
Central Australia.

Please cite as “FVM-83-11-30,” 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 7 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/83-11-30