353. Datura Stramonium L.
Very dangerous to herds & flocks; should be pulled and at once burnt where ever it appears, particularly before ripening seeds.1
356. Teucrium racemosum R. Br.
354. Gahnia Mariscus F.v.M.2
Feel honored and delighted with your portrait, with its touching happiness of expression.3 Kindly accept my poor lithogram.4
Your last Algs have gone to Prof. Agardh.
With friendship your
The malvaceous plant is a Lavatera, one of about 20 species occurring at the mediterranean Sea. I will give the specific name later. Could you send a fruiting specimen?5
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Datura Stramonium
Gahnia Mariscus
Lavatera
Teucrium racemosum
M's names match those used in the Hussey collection in MEL, or are synonyms, and the specimens are dated 1895. The numbers follow on from those used in M to J. Hussey, January 1895 (in this edition as 95-01-00h). The report of the meeting of the Port Elliot Agricultural Bureau held on 2 March included 'The chairman called attention to plant known as Datura stramonium found growing at Encounter Bay by Miss Hussey. This plant was poisonous' (South Australian chronicle, 23 March 1895, p. 13). It is likely that Hussey's report is based upon the identification provided by M. The letter is therefore dated to February 1895 as the latest it could have been written for the report to be made at the meeting on 2 March.
This number is used twice in the Hussey collection at MEL: Cladium procerum, of which Gahnia mariscus is a synonym, dated 1895, and Doxodasya lanuginose, an alga, undated.
In M to J. Agardh, 7 March 1895, M wrote 'Nach einem Photogram, welches ich von ihr erbat ist sie eine sehr schöne junge Dame mit geistreichem Ausdruck' ['According to a photograph that I requested from her, she is a very pretty young lady with an intelligent expression']. The photograph, held at Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, is published in Maroske & Vaughan (2014), p. 144.
This sentence, but not the postscript, published in Kraehenbuehl (1981a), p. 393.
Record number 318 is identified in M to J. Hussey, November 1894 (in this edition as 94-11-00d) as Lavatera plebeja; in MEL 1528306 it is identified as Malva, collected 1894, with 'Reproductive condition' noted as 'flowers'. The odd breaking-off of a valediction, followed by this paragraph and full valediction, suggests that this may have been mistaken as a continuation of the previous text.
Item is a typescript, transcriber unknown, prepared ca. 1977 from an original MS in the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide.
Please cite as “FVM-95-02-00f,” 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