Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, f. 56. 62.03.25d

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1862-03-25 [62.03.25d]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/62-03-25d>, accessed April 29, 2025

1
MS black-edged; M's sister Bertha died on 7 September 1861.
Melbourne bot. Garden
25/3/62
My dear Mr Bentham.
The previous mails will have announced to you, that I forwarded on 26 December 27 fascicles
Thalamiflorae

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pr Young Australia and on the 27. jan. 9 fascicles pr Great Britain.
2
See M to W. Hooker, 25 December 1861, 26 December 1861 and 29 January 1862; and M to G. Bentham, 20 February 1862 (in this edition as 62-02-20c).
I have been waiting for a very good opportunity of continuing the transmission, as I do not like to entrust these treasures to any but the safest opportunity; and I shall probably in the course of the week be able to send off pr. "Dover Castle" the magnificent collection of
Rutaceae

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, already put in readiness, also
Aurantiaceae

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& some other orders. I am gradually retiring as far as I can out of my various honorary offices, and shall gain more time for regular botanical work.
I am longing for your " Genera plantarum " and repeat a solicitation, already expressed to Dr Hooker, to send me (perhaps through the Colonial Office) the proofsheets as they pass the press.
3
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83); no contemporaneous or earlier request to J. Hooker has been found, although M had expressed a desire for proof sheets in M to G. Bentham, 24 December 1861, and M to G. Bentham, 24 January 1862.
If you can grant this favor, I have no doubt that I could furnish you for your supplemental pages with some remarks. I have for instance just worked up a new genus of
Rutaceae

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, well marked
4
Probably Coatesia which M erected (C. paniculata) in B62.05.01, p. 26.
& I have still some other thalamiflorous new genera before me. I have also some
Sapindaceae

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, which I can hardly put with safety into any of the genera as limited by Blume and others. No doubt you remodelled them all. I have sent to Sir Will Hooker a description of the fruit of
Tremandra

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.
5
MS not found.
Its embryo is not generically distinct from that of
Tetratheca

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!
Since sending off to you
Dilleniaceae

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&c &c I have some additions, as almost daily collections arrive. I presume it will be best not to send these, in order that not consignment may be heaped upon consignment. In most cases it will be only affording material for additional habitats, and if you show me the goodness of sending also the proof pages of the Australian Flora, I shall have generally no difficulty of working up any additions up to the date of your last publication.
Trusting that I have the happiness of hearing frequently from you, I remain
your faithful
Ferd. Mueller
Our estimates have not yet passed.
Pray bear in mind that no synonyms should be quoted unless established by diagnosis.
6
See Lucas (1995).
A fourth consignment will probably be sent pr "Suffolk"
I am not without anxiety about the safe arrival and return of the collections, as by any little accident these long series of forms may be lost & could not be regained.