7/10/88
One of the Cassinias, brought by you, dear Professor Tate,1 is what from specimens with young flowers I described as Humea punctulata in fragment. lll, 137.2 Let it now then under our united authority Cassinia punctulata be called.3
Could you spare an other fragment of the plant? If you found it in the Murray-Region also, it could still be included into the Addenda of the "Key", which in about a week will be finished as regards msc, and in about 2 weeks as regards printing, and in about 3 weeks as regards stitching.4
When I came to look more carefully at the parcel of dried plants, which you saw in one of my work-rooms, I found, that it contained mostly common plants. So it will be better, that I prepare a select lot for you purposely; but give me a little time; Jurors duty at the Exhib.,5 preparing for the therapeutic section of the Med. Congress,6 and initiating (this week) the work for the Melb. Meeting of the Austr. Assoc7 press together very heavily just now on me in addition to the daily routine-work
Regardfully always your
Ferd. von Mueller
Cassinia punctulata
Humea punctulata
Tate's meeting with M was during his travel to the first Congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Sydney, 28 August-3 September 1888. He left Adelaide by train for Melbourne on 24 August and departed for Sydney on 27 August (Argus, 25 August 1888, p. 11; 28 August 1888, p. 7). Tate was evidently in Melbourne for a very short time on his return: he passed through Albury, NSW, on 6 September for Melbourne (Sydney morning herald, 7 September 1888, p. 8), and arrived in Adelaide on the morning of 7 September (Evening journal (Adelaide), 8 September 1888, p. 4).
B63.03.01, p. 137.
Cassinia punctulata was published in Tate (1890) with a brief description in the analytic key, p. 123, and the joint authority of M and Tate given in the list of species that indicated the SA region where it was known to grow, p. 241. No synonymy was given.
B88.11.02; C. punctulata was not listed by Tate from the Murray River plain and is not included in M's 'Additions and alterations', p. 549.
Centennial International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1888-9.
Intercolonial Medical Congress of Australasia, Melbourne, January 1889.
M was President of the second Congress of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science, held in Melbourne in January 1890.
Please cite as “FVM-88-10-07,” 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