15/3/90.
The large water-plant, dear Miss, to which His Excellency Sir Will Macgregor alluded as occurring on the Fly-River,1 is the Nelumbium speciosum. The specimens, preserved in methylized Alcohol, become necessarily discolored, and would therefore not serve you for painting from this plant; — moreover as it has been repeatedly illustrated pictorially from Asiatic specimens, it would not be of so great an interest, as many other Papuan plants, for your purposes.
Respectfully
your
Ferd. von Mueller
Nelumbium speciosum
New Guinea. Macgregor travelled up the Fly river and its branches in late 1889 and early 1890. In a despatch Macgregor refers to a plant of which he was 'unaware whether [it] has been described scientifically or not'. The plant, seen in January 1890, had 10-inch wide flowers and a circular leaf over 2 feet in diameter. Macgregor commented that 'nothing can exceed the beauty of this magnificent plant when it is seen in hundreds and thousands on a large lagoon' (Brisbane courier, 16 April 1890, p. 7). No earlier version of the despatch has been found, and it is not known how the discovery was known to Walker before M's evident reply to a letter from her.) Check date - May, not March?
Please cite as “FVM-90-03-15,” 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