To Frederick Bailey   15 September 1886

15/9/86.

 

The Dischidia, sent by you, dear Mr Bailey,1 is Dischidia ovata of Bentham, which is very variable also in New Guinea as regards the breadth of its leaves. The broad-leaved form of this species is D. picta of Blume. It differs from D. cochleata in the leaves not being generally purplish underneath, in the tube of the corolla being not or hardly at all red, and in the lobes not assuming a blueish tinge. If the two are mere varieties of one species, then Bentham's name is the oldest for the two. The floral structure of the two is the same. The plant seems to have a wide range in New Guinea, and there appears also not to produce ascidia readily, so far as the specimens, obtained from there, are showing.

Regardfully

your

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

I believe to have specimens of the same plant from several places of North Queensland, but without flowers their identification remains doubtful.

My best compliments to Rev Jul Tenison Woods2

Could you kindly help me with a specimen of the fruit of Acacia harpophylla, as I am not quite sure, that what I have of it has been correctly matched by Mr Thozet

I have neither expanded flowers of Acacia macradenia.

 

Acacia harpophylla

Acacia macradenia

Dischidia cochleata

Dischidia ovata

Dischidia picta

1
F. Bailey to M, 9 September 1886.
2
Woods returned to Australia in mid-1886 after spending the previous three years in south-east and east Asia.

Please cite as “FVM-86-09-15,” 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 9 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/86-09-15