27/3/90.2
I think, I should mention to you, my honored friend, that after Mr Bailey resumed communication with me lately on his own accord,3 I looked over some of his plants from the Bellenden Ker's Ranges4 again, and am thus reminded, that his Alsophila Capensis5 is A Rebeccae! He seems to have based his identification merely on the adventitious growth, occuring on both these ferntrees. Pray, let Mr Baker know this, so as to avoid there record of mistakes. What Mr B's A Rebeccae is, enumerated by him also, I do not know, as he only sent me specimens of one ferntree. His Harpullia frutescens6 is clearly a form, indicated by me before, of H alata. It is impossible for me, to accept any of his species, until I have examined specimens. His new Vallisneria7 is a Blyxa, — well known, I think, but I emerge only now from the arrear-work, accumulated during the Austral. Assoc. Meeting;8 so h[av]e9 not closely yet, examined the subject.
Always regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.10
Many of Fitzgeralds11 species I omitted,12 because he takes quite different views to mine on limits of species.13
I introduced here mirrors for giving additional vistas in the horticult. shows.14
15It is just 50 years ago, March 1840, when I commenced my botanic excursions in the south-western parts of the Dukedom of Schleswig, then Danish territory.
Alsophila Capensis
Alsophila Rebeccae
Blyxa
Harpullia frutescens
Harpullia alata
Vallisneria
Please cite as “FVM-90-03-27,” 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 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/90-03-27