It belongs to the series of this great genus, of which A. ramulosus is a leading feature. In 1866 when Mr. Bentham and myself elaborated the 3th vol. of the Universal Flora of Australia,3 which contains also the vast orders of Compositae, we had not material enough for defining the limits of all the species undisputably. With the doubled or tripled material now in my collection this might be done, but it would take many weeks uninterrupted work to accomplish this.
Your specimen has no ripe fruit. I require also notes on its stature and places of occurence. Ray flowers well enclosed
543. Lyperanthus nigricans R. Brown4
Leaf only; This produces flowers in spring; they are very conspicuous and red and white striped.
232. Styphelia5
As yet I see no ripe fruit, which is required for naming safely plants in this genus, of which 180 species are known.
542. Pterostylis praecox LIndley6
This I had from S.A. before only from Kangaroo Island.
541. Eriochilus fimbriatus F.v.M.
new locality!
545. Pterostylis nutans R. Br.
In S.A. a rare plant
546. Pterostylis longifolia R. Brown
544. Pterostylis praecox LIndley7
Beautifully prepared specimens, the flowers of unusually large size. Rare among congeners. You can most easily distinguish this from P. reflexa by the broad sinus in the lower portion of the flowers, just as P. nana from P. pedunculata.8
547. Pterostylis nana, R. Br.
Always with friendship your
Ferd. von Mueller
Aster ramulosus
Compositae
Eriochilus fimbriatus
Juncus pauciflorus
Lyperanthus nigricans
Pterostylis longifolia
Pterostylis nana
Pterostylis nutans
Pterostylis pedunculata
Pterostylis praecox
Pterostylis praecox
Pterostylis reflexa
Sporobolus elongatus
Styphelia
There is no Hussey specimen with this number at MEL.
'528. Lolium tentulentum' [i.e. L. temulentum?] written by Hussey below this entry. The number is not used in another determination sheet. It is dated 1896 in MEL.
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, pp. 447-680 (dated 1866 on title page, but issued 5 January 1867 (TL2)).
There is no Hussey specimen with this number at MEL.
There are four specimens at MEL with the record number 232, all identified as Styphelia exarrhena; one is undated, the others are for 1894 (M to J. Hussey, May 1894 (in this edition as 94-05-00b)), 1895 (M to J. Hussey, June 1895 (in this edition as 95-06-00g)), and 1896 (this item); none is described as having fruit.
Listed in MEL as Pterostylis striata, of which P. praecox is not a synonym.
Listed in MEL as Pterostylis striata.
Paragraph published in Kraehenbuehl (1981a), p. 395, starting '544. Pterostylis praecox (= P. alata)' and then with the same text as given here except that an ellipsis is inserted: 'the flowers … just as P. nana …'.
Item is a typescript, transcriber unknown, prepared ca. 1977 from an original MS in the State Library of South Australia, Adelaide.
Of these record numbers that are present at MEL, all are dated 1896, with numbers 544-547 dated as July 1896. Record number 535, which was omitted from the sequence in M to J. Hussey, March 1896 (in this edition as 96-03-00h), and 536 are dated to February 1896 (AVH, accessed 4 August 2024). Except for Pterostylis praecox (record numbers 542, 544), specimens match M's name, or are synonyms of MEL catalogue names (APC, accessed 6 September 2024). The list is therefore dated to July 1896 as the earliest date that it could have been written.
Please cite as “FVM-96-07-00f,” 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