From Joseph Maiden   7 January 1887

7th Jan. [188]61

Dear Baron Mueller,

I thank you for the information re the proposed trip of Mr Bäuerlen. I am going to see the Minister tomorrow, and I will do all I can to get Mr Bauerlen sent to the north-west.2

I am writing a little work on the "Economic plants of Australia" purely from the technological point of view. The manuscript is all but ready, and will be in the hands of the Government Printer by the end of the current month. 3 In wading through Exhibition literature &c of the last 3 years I have had some little difficulty in regard to botanical synonymy. I should be ever grateful if you would kindly resolve the difficulties referred to in the enclosures.

The book will be an octavo volume about an inch thick, and embodies my notes ever since I have had charge of this museum.

As you are the father of Australian botanic technology, I ask permission to dedicate my little volume to you.4

Yours very truly,

J. H. Maiden.

 

The Baron Ferd. von Mueller K.C.M.G., F.R.S.

&c &c &c

Melbourne

 

1. Danthonia racemosa R. Br. This is in the "Flora Australiensis"5 but I fail to find it in the Census.6

2. Sterculia foetida B. Fl.7 i. 226.

I do not find this in the Census, so perhaps you do not consider it indigenous.

3. Owenia cerasifera B. Fl. i. 386.

Have you suppressed this species?

4. Nelitris ingens FvM. B Fl. iii. 294

Have you suppressed this?8 Under what genus do you now place this?

5. Elaeodendron melanocarpum Synop. Queensland Flora.9 p 68.

Have you united this with E. australe?

6. Does Macrozamia Miquelii B. Fl. = Encephalartos tridentatus (Lehm.) of the Census?10

Will you kindly give me references to the following species which I cannot find either in the Census or in the Flora Australiensis? This is because either (1) You do not consider them indigenous or (2) they are synonyms.

7. Acacia Coxeni Leichhardt. (a Brigalow)

No 122 Queensland Woods, Paris Exh. 1867.11

8. Acacia Lebbeck noted by Hill as indigenous in Queensland no 136 Queensland woods, Paris Exh. 1867. Is this not an error for Albizzia Lebbeck an African species?12

9. Acacia sapindoides A. Cunn.

no 118 Queensland woods, Paris Exh. 1867

10. Acmena elliptica. Called 'Lily Pily' in N.S.W. timbers at London Exh. 1862,13 & hereafter presumably Eugenia Smithii

11 Aralia elegans A. Cunn. ? Panax elegans14

no 18 Queensland woods. Paris Exh. 1867 & no 130 N.S.W.

12 Boerhaavia acuminata

"Esculent plants of Australia" (Hooker — Flora of Tasmania)15

13. Bursaria ferruginea Hill16

no 88 Queensland woods, Paris Exh. 1867

14. Cargillia arborea "Grey Plum"

? included in G. pentamera 17

15 Cassytha cuscutiformis

16. Chenolea bicornis

? = Sclerolaena bicornis Lindl.

(Salt-bush analysis by Dixon, Proc. R.S. (N.S.W.) 1880.18 p 133.

17 Coprosma microphylla

"Esculent Plants of Australia" (Hooker Flora of Tasmania)

18. Coniogeton arborescens R. Br.

the "Little Gooseberry tree" of Leichhardt.

"Overland Journey to Port Essington"19 p 479.

19. Croton acuminatus Hill

no 82 Queensland woods, Paris Exh. 1867

20 Cryptocarya speciosa

(Jurors' Reports, London International Exhibition, 1862, Timbers20)

21 Dammara Brownii Auct.

Wide Bay (Q). Queensland Woods, Paris Exh. 1867

22. Endiandra laurina "Red-wood."21

23. Eucalyptus fissilis F.v.M.

The essential oil is also referred to in Wittstein & Mueller.22

24. Eucalyptus grandis

The 'flooded Gum' of Hill

no 74 Queensland Exhibits at Paris Exh. 1867

25. Cupania australis Hook.

no 43 Queensland woods, Paris Exh. 1867

Is it a synonym of Diploglottis Cunninghamii Hook

If Stadmannia australis is also a syn. who gave the name? 23

26. Flindersia Selwyniana FvM.24

Queensland Woods, Paris Exh. 1867

27. Hakea pedunculata

28 Lophostemon macrophyllum R. Br.

no 62. Queensland woods, Paris Exh. 1867

presumably a Tristania 25

29. Melia australis FvM. (White Cedar)

no 31 Queensland Woods, Paris Exh. 1867

australasica

& 157 N.S.W. woods, London Exh. 1862.

30 Memecylon cerasiforme

Variously called "Ironwood", "Red Apple", "Red Cherry."26

31. Musa Brownii FvM.

Quoted by Thozet as a food of the Cleveland Bay aborigines in Smyth's "Aborigines of Victoria."27

32 Myrtus argentea Hill.

33 Myrtus australis Hill

no 60 Queensland Woods, Paris Exh. 1867

34 Nauclea Leichhardti FvM "Leichhardt's tree"

no 148 Queensland timbers, Paris Exh. 1867.

? Sarcocephalus Leichhardti B. Fl iii. 424

Vide also Morinda citrifolia

Referred to in Brough-Smyth's "Aborigines of Victoria".28

35. Nelitris ingens FvM.

no xix N.S.W. timbers, London Exh. 186229

36. Panicum italicum Linn. not the genuine species indigenous in Australia?

I cannot quite reconcile B. Fl. vii 493 and Muell. Fragm. viii. 110.

37 Pseudalangium tomentosum [...]30

no 36 Queensland Woods, Paris Exh. 1867

is Stylidium Vitiense (Seemann, "Flora Vitiense" 42931)

38 Stenocarpus longifolius 32

39 Synoum (Sunoon) Lardneri (Moore)

no 21 Cat. N.S.W. Woods London Exh. 186233

40 Tarrietia actinodendron

41 Tectona australis Hill "Beech"

no 30. Queensland Woods, Paris Exh. 1867

42 Eugenia marginata Hill

no 56 Queensland Woods, Paris Exh. 1867

 

the Queensland Catalogue of timbers for Paris Exhibition of 1867 seems to have been prepared in [quite] a loose way, and the late Mr Hill created species without much enquiry

 

Acacia Coxeni

Acacia Lebbeck

Acacia sapindoides

Acmena elliptica

Albizzia Lebbeck

Aralia elegans

Boerhaavia acuminata

Bursaria ferruginea

Cargillia arborea

Cargillia pentamera

Cassytha cuscutiformis

Chenolea bicornis

Coniogeton arborescens

Coprosma microphylla

Croton acuminatus

Cryptocarya speciosa

Cupania australis

Dammara Brownii

Danthonia racemosa

Diploglottis Cunninghamii

Elaeodendron melanocarpum

Encephalartos tridentatus

Endiandra Caurina

Eucalyptus fissilis

Eucalyptus grandis

Eugenia marginata

Eugenia Smithii

Flindersia Selwyniana

Hakea pedunculata

Lophostemon macrophyllum

Macrozamia Miquelii

Melia australasica

Melia australis

Memecylon cerasiforme

Morinda citrifolia

Musa Brownii

Myrtus argentea

Myrtus australis

Nauclea Leichhardti

Nelitris ingens

Nelitris ingens

Owenia cerasifera

Panax elegans

Panicum italicum

Pseudalangium tomentosum

Sarcocephalus Leichhardti

Sclerolaena bicornis

Stadmannia australis

Stenocarpus longifolius

Sterculia foetida

Stylidium Vitiense

Synoum (Sunoon) Lardneri

Tarrietia actinodendron

Tectona australis

Tristania

1
editorial additionThe sequence of letters in archives shows this was written in mistake for 1887.
2
Bäuerlen went on a collecting expedition to the north-west of NSW, jointly sponsored by M and Maiden, in July 1887; see J. Maiden to M, 23 July 1887.
3
Maiden (1889)?
4
The preface to Maiden's book includes a fulsome tribute to M, but there is no separate dedication.
5
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7, p. 594.
6
B82.13.16.
7
Bentham (1863-78).
8
Bentham referred at the point indicated to specimens of a tree 'in fruit only and bearing F. Mueller's MSS. name of Nelitris (?) ingens [which] may possibly belong to a Memecylon, although unlike any species known to me'. See also no. 35 below.
9
Bailey (1883).
10
Bentham described Macrozamia Miquelii in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 253, giving M's name Encephalartos Miquelii as a synonym. In B82.13.16, p. 110, M gave Encephalartos priority as the genus name, but did not include E. Miquelii in the list of species. He did, however, include E. tridentatus, with a reference to the same page in Flora australiensis.
11
Hill (1867). No other use of A. coxeni has been found; not in IPNI. Leichhardt (1847), p. 4 provides a brief informal description of ‘the Acacia of Mr. Coxen’.
12
APNI gives Acacia Lebbeck Wild. as a synonym for Albizzia Lebbeck.
13
International Exhibition 1862 (1861), p. 30.
14
See B57.09.04, p 68. At the end of the description of Panax elegans M wrote ‘its timber was exhibited at Paris [i.e. Exposition universelle, Paris, 1855], under the name Aralia elegans’.
15
J. Hooker (1855-60), vol. 1, p. cxi; the name does not appear in IPNI and has not been found in other sources.
16
Not in IPNI; as well as in Hill’s lists, the name was used in Fowke (1867).
17
C. pentamera?
18
Dixon (1880).
19
Leichhardt (1847).
20
International Exhibition 1862 (1863), Class IV, Section C, p. 36. Not in IPNI. Maiden (1902-25), vol. 4, pp. 56-7 asked his readers to help him trace this species.
21
Not in IPNI.
22
Wittstein (1878), p. 148.
23
Cupania australis not in IPNI. Although Maiden (1889), p. 416 cites J. Hooker as author, “J.S.” in W. Hooker (1827-64), vol. 75, tab 4470 (1849), treats Cupania cunninghami as a synonym of A. Cunningham’s MSS name, Stadtmannia australis,even though Don (1831-8), vol. 1, p. 669 had published it in 1831. C. cunninghami was transferred to Diploglottis cunninghami by J. Hooker in Bentham and Hooker (1862-83), vol 1, p. 395.
24
No record has been found of M’s publishing this name. Not in IPNI.
25
Lophostemon macrophyllumnot in IPNI; see under Tristania conferta in Bentham (1863 – 78), vol 3, p. 263.
26
See Nilson (1884), p. 98, as Memecylon cerasiformis.
27
Smyth (1878), vol. 1, pp. 227-233 reprints Thozet (1866) in toto. Musa Brownii appears on p. 231. There is no record of M having described Musa brownii. Not in IPNI although the name has appeared in secondary works, apparently on the authority of Thozet in Smyth.
28
Nauclea Leichhardti appears in Smyth (1878), vol. 1, p. 230. M did not describe Nauclea leichhardti, but discussed ‘Leichhardt’s tree’ under Morinda citrifolia in B60.13.12, p. 12, suggesting that if it proved distinct, Sarcocephalus Leichhardti would be an appropriate name. N. leichhardti not in IPNI.
29
International Exhibition 1862 (1861), p. 48.
30
One or two illegible words.
31
Seemann (1865-73), p. 429, refers to Rhytidandra Vitiensis A. Gray, and after listing Marlea Vitiensis, Pseudalangium polyosmoides and Rhytidrandra Polyosmoidesas synonyms, remarks: 'According to Bentham, the genus Rhytidandra should be merged into Marlea, and this particular species, which is also found on the east coast of New Holland, should bear the name he has given to it'. M made the combination Stylidium vitiensein B82.13.16, p. 74, noting Gray's name Rhytidandra as he did so.
32
Not in IPNI.
33
International Exhibition 1862 (1861), p. 50.

Please cite as “FVM-87-01-07a,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/87-01-07a