Ɛpsilon

From Clarence Phillips to Ferdinand von Mueller   9 June 18841

Pine Hill2

June 9th 1884

To Baron Von Müller

Curator Botanical Gardens

Melbourne

Sir

I send you by the mail which bears this a specimen of fern, which being new to me, I thought might be so to you also, also a specimen of grass which is now green and abundant in places, notwithstanding the drought, but stock will not eat it; on looking for cause thereof, I find it is when green, extremely acid: small crystals of acid being visible on the outsides of fresh specimens.

These are found 295½ miles west of Rockhampton, at a place called Camp Creek close to the main deviding range. In the valleys of the Drummond range there is I believe an un-named species of Cycad closely resembling the Zamia of the Springsure District but not having any knowledge of botany I cannot say if it is new & the plants being large would cost too much for freight to submit a specimen to you.

If these specimens are of no interest to you I shall be sorry for having troubled you with them & hope you will excuse me so doing.

Yours &c &c

C A Phillips

Station Master

Pine Hill

via Rockhampton

Zamia

1

MS annotation by M: 'Answ 18/6/84 FvM'. Letter not found.

2

Qld.

3

MS found with a specimen of Leptochloa debilis (MEL 716949). M's museum label reads: 'Poa Near Rockhampton 1884 C. A Phillips'.

Please cite as “FVM-84-06-09,” 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 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/84-06-09