Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, ff. 112-14. 63.08.11

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1863-08-11. 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/63-08-11>, accessed April 19, 2025

Melbourne botanic Garden
11/8/63.
Dear Mr Bentham.
1
The salutation is marked in the margin with a cross.
I am much gratified to observe that you so largely reduce the genera of
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.
2
See G. Bentham to M, 24 June 1863.
Nothing has rendered our favorite science more difficult, then the multiplication of genera. I wished, allow me to say, that you had applied the same conservative principles to the
Rutaceae

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. That I reduced
Atylosia

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to
Cajanus

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you will have observed in my report on Fitzalans plants.
3
B60.13.12.
Herewith you receive a list of quotations of
Leguminosae

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published by me elsewhere then in the Fragmenta.
4
List not found.
I am packing the rest of the
Leguminosae

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for you now; for after finishing off
Mimoseae

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and
Caesalpineae

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I will relinquish the task of working, except incidentally, the Victorian plants out before you, as I could not possibly keep pace with you and should delay your work if I attempted it. I have
5
The line in the MS beginning have is marked in the margin with a cross.
too little time to devote to it, unless I keep late hours which my health will not admit. I will however always do what I can to facilitate by prepary arrangements or investigations your own labour. You will kindly bear in mind, that it becomes now doubly necessary to adopt the safest measures in sending the collections to and fro, as with the loss of any portion of them the material for the Victorian flora would be destroyed. Amongst the supplemental fascicles packed this moment (and to be forwarded by an early Clipper) you will find a number of unnamed very beautiful and evidently new
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, gathered by Maxwell in his various trips to the [we]stern
6
we appears to have been written over ea, but the final rendering is unclear. Western is preferred because of Maxwell's known trips to the western edge of the Bight, see, for example, G. Maxwell to M, 26 April 1863.
Extremity of the Great Bight.
The "Prince of Wales" has as yet not arrived, altho due. I hope my four boxes will come all safe.
I think it would be nice if the
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were kept by themselfes in vol II, perhaps with supplemental notes to vol. I.
Maxwell has just returned from the Western Exploring Expedition,
7
An expedition from Bremer Bay to Point Culver, WA. On 30 June 1863 Maxwell and one other person, provisioned for six weeks, left the rest of the party to return independently to Albany (Perth inquirer and commercial news , 23 September 1863, p. 3).
which although geographically unsuccessful is likely to have extended our knowledge of the flora of that part of Australia. I will take pains to send off any
Leguminosae

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at once and also any that may arrive from N.E. Australia, where Mr Dallachy continues collecting on the expense of my department. I am besides expecting contributions from some friends; but there are now no Governments geographical expeditions engaged and hence the supply of plants from such has ceased and will remain so for some time to come.
Enclosed you will find 2 notes from our Minister of finances, the honorable Geo. Vernon, from which you will perceive, that the second hundred pounds will be placed at your disposal by this mail, as before through the Colonial Agent in London.
Probably you will not approve of my having in the flora of Victoria brought all the Desert Cassiae from C. phyllodinea to C desolata into one species = i.e. C. artemisoides (with about a dozend synonyms. Yet there is nothing in the flower and fruit to separate them, and of the forms of leaves & petioles you will see all possible gradations in my three fascicles of this polymorphous and truely protean species. In all the diagnoses of Cassiae the position of the seeds should be recorded, whether longitudinal or transversal, whether facing or edging the valves. Vogels synopsis
8
Vogel (1837)?
has proved to me of little utility. In it we find the same species occasionally in two sections. What
Cassia occidentalis

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is I cannot make out with my comparatively scanty extra-Australian material! If Wight & Arnott
9
Wight & Arnott (1834).
are correct, the position of the seeds is quite different to that of C. Sophera, which may include C. Barclayana. The stipellar glands seem to vary clavate or spherical. I have reduced
Inga moniliformis

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to Acacia, of which the Australian Pithecolobia form a section.
I shall finish this letter after the receipt of yours by incoming mail.
Ever yours
Ferd. Mueller.
The enclosed descriptions of two Acaciae
10
Descriptions not found.
I did not venture to publish, not feeling confident that they are specifically distinct. We have yet much to learn on the cyclus of forms of the species, altho' the joint material at your disposal will no doubt supply a good series of forms of many species. The root of
Acacia lophantha

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is remarkable for its alliaceous odor.
11
This paragraph is marked in the margin with a cross.
Should not the genus
Spadostylis

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12
Spadostyles? Contrast the argument here with that in M to G. Bentham, 10 September 1863 (in this edition as 63-09-10b).
be broken up and the species with opposite [or] verticillate leaves be transferred to
Euchilus

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and the spec. with alternate leaves to
Pultenaea

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? I [surmise]
13
editorial addition — MS damaged.
that on the position of the leaves you base the main characters of Oxylobium (&
Podolobium

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) and of
Chorizema

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. If these are sufficient for generic distinction
Euchilus

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must be kept up as a genus; otherwise I should have been inclined to join Oxylobium to
Chorizema

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. That I united in various of my writings
Eutaxia

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and
Sclerothamnus

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you will probably remember.
I have not carefully examined the Oxylobia and you are probably quite correct in uniting O. alpestre with O. ellipticum. It is curious, that this plant, which is abundant over all our alpine chains from the sources of the Genoa River to Mount Baw Baw and northward in any direction should maintain its general characters so well. It forms very often the main alpine scrubs, and ranges from 4-5000' seldom descending to 3500'.
14/8/63
Dear Mr Bentham
I can now at once reply to your kind letter of 24 June.
14
G. Bentham to M, 24 June 1863.
As I am engaged getting the last portion of
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packed you may expect to receive the whole in November and the small families you indicate in December. I shall present the 30 copies of your Flora to the Government, when ever they arrive, in your name. Unfortunately, I do not possess Turcz. writings on Austral
Leguminosae

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15
Probably Turczaninow (1853).
and hence I fear some of those, described in the Fragmenta [can]not
16
editorial addition — MS damaged.
be maintained. Of a very fine Oxylobium herewith description. You will notice that I reduced
Roea

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to
Sphaerolobium

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. Though I hold so strong views on the necessity of reducing genera I should hardly recommend to unite
Dillwynia

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with
Pultenaea

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. The occurrence of stipules or its absense seems to me to stamp always decided generic differences. I attach also great importance to the distinct development of a strophiole. As I have in your last letter the exact enumeration of those families you intend to insert into the second volume along with the
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, I will not fail to put them up without delay, and the
Myrtaceae

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can follow at once, as Eucalypti and many other are ready for shipment.
With a cordial good-bye and the sincerest wishes for your health & happiness I remain, dear Mr Bentham,
Your attached
Ferd Mueller.
When thanking you by last mail for your kindness of completing the sending of proofsheets, I acknowledged the generous spirit, with which you have delt with me throughout. Pray give Sir Will. & Dr Hooker my kindest regards from me.
You will be aware that I reduced
Cyclogyne

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to
Swainsona

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in various documents. Of
Phaseolus rostratus

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I have furnished a careful description in my Kew manuscripts from living plants.
17
MS not found.
The structure of the flower is most curious.
18
The final PS is a marginal note on the first page of the letter, f. 112.