From Donald Petrie   3 September 1893

Clyde St,

Dunedin

3rd Septr 1893.

My Dear Baron,

It is a pleasure to hear from you once more.¹ From your long silence I began to fear that your health might not be as good as your friends could wish. I fully understand how busy you must be with your large establishment and the assistants now so few. Times are I regret to hear very bad with you; much worse than they were with us a few years ago. But I hope you will live to see brighter days. For some time past I have been putting aside plants that might be of interest to you, and with this I send on a small parcel. It contains specimens of most of my recently described novelties. A few are yet too scantily represented in my collection to spare any, but these I hope to get more of by & bye. I have not yet decent flowering spcs.² of Tetrachondra, but I send a number in fruit. I should like to know your view of its systematic position. I have it growing & can send you some flowers by & bye in alcohol if you wish them. In some ways it approaches the Dichondreae, and I was at first inclined to refer it to the Convolvulaceae. It is clearly a most anomalous plant. Mr Kirk had it years ago, & referred it to Tilleae!! He could never have dissected the ovary. The new Gastrodia is of much interest. At the Otira Valley I lately got Gastrodia seasamoides³ Br. We have thus three species of the genus in N.Z. Buchanan's Gastrodia Hectori is a true Prasophyllum. I had from Mr Rodway flowers of the Tasmanian Coprosma you provisionally referred to C. Petriei. In fruit the plants are almost indistinguishable, but the flowering states are widely unlike. It would be interesting to know if it is protrandrous, as Nertera setulosa is. I am much inclined to your view that Nertera is congeneric with Coprosma. Rodway's plant shews that the dioecious character breaks down in Coprosma, & that gone, what is left to divide the genera? I hope you will be able to push on the supplement to the Flora Australiensis To outsiders like myself it will be most welcome as summing up what has been discovered during the last 20 years. I do not much care for Australian plants except Junceae Restiaceae & Cyperaceae. Of these I should greatly value a full set of all the Species & Genera that are common to Australia & N.Z. ⁴ Could you spare me any papers you may have in duplicate on Mosses Hepaticae & Fungi of Australia? I am now seriously taking up these families. I do not expect to do much if any original work, but I would like to know the common cryptogams. I have made considerable advances in the Mosses. I hope you are keeping well. Trusting to hear from you now & then, and with best wishes for your health & work,

I remain,

Yours sincerely

D. Petrie.

Convolvulaceae

Coprosma Petriei

Cyperaceae

Dichondreae

Fungi

Gastrodia Hectori

Gastrodia seasamoides

Hepaticae

Junceae

Nertera setulosa

Prasophyllum

Restiaceae

Tetrachondra

Tilleae