Mt Macedon,1 1/12/83.
I am not certain, dear Prof Tate, whether you have Heliotropium tenuifolium in the S.A. list,2 as I have not access to all sources of information here. I just received it from the Rev. H. Kempe.
On Mt Macedon in humid vallies I found Centunculus minimus. I had it never from any part of Australia before, until you sent specimens some month ago.3
I cannot but think that it is introduced; it grows not far from the township here on places where Trifolium filiforme, Lythrum hyssopifolia and many other introduced plants grow.4
Of course, there is the possibility but not the probability of this plant having been overlooked on many places.
Regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller.
Centunculus minimus
Heliotropium tenuifolium
Lythrum hyssopifolia
Trifolium filiforme
Vic.
Lists of species known up to this date to occur in SA were published or in proof as Tate (1880), Tate (1882), Tate (1882b), Tate (1883a).
AVH (accessed 21 September 2020) records no specimen from Tate at MEL. There are specimens at Adelaide (under Lysimachia minima) collected from Wattle Range in the SE of SA in November 1882; no collector is recorded but Tate was in the area at that time (Tate (1883c)).
Tate had reported the plant (in Tate (1882), p. 73) as indigenous, based on M's find at Mt Macedon and the fact that M 'catalogued it in his recent "Supplement of the Plants of Australia"'. M's entry, as 'Anagallis Centunculus' from SA and Vic, is at B84.03.06, p. 3.
Please cite as “FVM-83-12-01a,” 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