Fwd: Bapopik at aol.com: Macadamia (1857)

[Jesse Sheidlower]

Forwarded on behalf of Barry Popik.

--Jesse Sheidlower

----- Forwarded message from Bapopik at aol.com -----

Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2002 20:52:54 EST
From: Bapopik at aol.com
Subject: Macadamia (1857)
To: <ADS-L at listserv.uga.edu>
Cc: <jester at panix.com>, <AAllan at aol.com>, <gcohen at umr.edu>
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I hope this attachment makes ADS-L--it's text!
--Barry Popik

X-Mailer: Novell GroupWise 5.5.3
Date: Mon, 21 Jan 2002 11:06:05 +1100
From: "Ian Innes" <Ian.Innes at rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au>
To: <Bapopik at aol.com>
Subject: Re: Fwd: Macadamia (1893)

Dear Barry,

My name is Ian Innes and I am the Horticultural Planning Officer here at the RBG Sydney. The Curator has asked me to investigate your query regarding Macadamia.

I found the following references in Australian Plant Name Index, Australian Flora and Fauna Series #14, Arthur Chapman, AGPS 1991:
1. Ferdinand von Mueller
    in Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria v.2,p.72
    [30 Sept. 1857]
    regarding Macadamia ternifolia

2. Maiden, Joseph Henry and Betche, Ernest
    in Proceedings of the Linnean Society of New South Wales v.21,p.624
    [31 May 1896] regarding Macadamia integrifolia


The RBG library holds both journals however the imprints are rather fragile and the Librarian is a little cagey about photocopying.


Von Mueller's is the first known published citation, part of "Article X- Account of Some New Australian Plants [read before the Institute 5th August 1857]", pp62-77.
In it von Mueller comments on the naming of the genus being "dedicated to John Macadam, Esq., M.D., the talented and deserving Secretary of our Institute".
However there is no reference to a common name. Von Mueller was director of the Melbourne Botanic Garden 1857-1873.

Maiden's is the next accepted citation. He was the Director of these Gardens 1896-1927.
It is in an article in Proc. Linn. Soc. NSW, "ON A NEW SPECIES OF MACADAMIA, TOGETHER WITH NOTES ON TWO PLANTS NEW TO THE COLONY" regarding Macadamia integrifolia another species, but referring to M. ternifolia F.von Muell. as "the Nut-tree".
The type specimen was collected from Camden Haven on the New South Wales mid-north coast.

After 1900 there are many references in the literature, enough for a diligent honours student to spend a couple of weeks researching! W.D. Francis,1929 in Australian Rainforest Trees refers to Macadamia integrifolia as "Bush Nut, Queensland Nut, Nut Oak"  but does not quote a source.

Let me know if I can dig for further specific details for you. I suspect common names are going to be hard to trace accurately as the colonists and early settlers invented all sorts of local variants for new plants they were unfamiliar with, and scientists are attached to their Latin nomenclature!!




Ian Innes
Horticulture and Landscape Planning Officer
Royal Botanic Gardens Sydney



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>>> <Bapopik at aol.com> 14:11:22 16/01/02 >>>
Bruce Rann
Curator, Sydney Gardens and Domain

   I'm researching the origin of the name "macadamia"/"Queensland" nut.  Sydney planted this in the 1800s.  Do you have a citation in an early publication anywhere?

Barry Popik
(consultant to the OED; member of American Dialect Society)
225 East 57th Street, Apt. 7P
New York, NY 10022

(The attached was sent to the ADS listserve.)



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