Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, ff. 370-3. 69.02.27

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1869-02-27. 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/69-02-27>, accessed September 11, 2025

27/[2]/69.
1
2 over 3. Reading confirmed by G. Bentham to M, 13 May 1869.
It was my intention, dear Mr Bentham, to have sent an other case of Museum-plants to you by the Essex, but so much unforeseen work intervened, that I could not g[e]t it quite ready, and must now send it by the Sommersetshire which steamer will leave on the 8th March. That vessel brought the large caseful of
Monopetaleae

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all right back. In the case now to be despatched you will get also some supplemental
Verbenaceae

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&
Labiatae

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, which now will be useful yet for the 5th volume.
2
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 5.
The case will contain the rest of the
Salsolaceae

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and some
Dryandra

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e &
Banksia

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e, but it will still need an other large box, to send the rest of these bulky plants. I have also added some
Lichenes

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, and I earnestly draw your attention to the necessity to provide ere long for the cryptogamic volume .
3
No such volume was published.
In all probability the phanerogamic volumes will be finished by the end of 1870, and if then only a commencement is made with the Cryptogams, the work will remain then likely for several years incomplete. I could undertake the ferns, — if you approved of it, and the Algae are available from poor Harvey's excellent writings, Sonder having however added one genus and several species (one
Caulerpa

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) from my lately obtained tropical collections.
That leaves
Fungi

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,
Musci

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and
Lichenes

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unprovided for, except that Mr Berkeley has promised to work up the
Fungi

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for the L.S., and that at present the excellent Dr Lindberg in Helsingfors looks over my musci and Dr Gottsche over my
Hepaticae

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again. But my collections in these plants are very incomplete and RBrown's, A. Cunningham's & A. Oldfield's have to be worked up de novo. Whether the overworked Mitten can help us, I dont know, but this you will be best aware of. Dr Sonder informs me, that C. Mueller is about to give a new edition of his work on Mosses,
4
TL2 does not list a second edition of C. Müller (1849-51).
so he perhaps would be able to take the responsibility of this part of the Australian work.
My only desire in soliciting early consideration for this difficult cryptogamic volume is this, that my health is fluctuating and that after my death not the same facilities may exist, to obtain subsidies for the work, and really I should like to see the work closed, while I am spared to live.
5
See J. Hooker to M, 11 July 1869.
The
Lichenes

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now sent are all from New England, & it would probably be best to place them at once into the hands of the Rev. Mr Leighton together with such as Dr Hooker already received from me.
6
W. Leighton received some of M's lichen collection. See W. Leighton to J. Hooker, 16 November [1869?] (RBG Kew, Director's letters, vol. 91 (English letters 1865-1900), letter no. 326).
I have no duplicates left. So I expect a specimen back from each species. The material for a supplemental volume on the
Phanerogamae

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is steadily advancing.
7
No such supplementary volume was published.
While on the subject of these volumes, I would remark, that in all probability some scribifex will ask your permission to copy for one or the other of the colonies a special volume out of the general work. I hope you will not countenance such a proceeding, alike unjust to you as author and to the publisher. I may after a lapse of years, should I live so long, publish such special Colonial volumes myself on an altered plan of the present work and bring in recent and constantly accrueing supplements.
The sudden death of the great von Martius
8
Carl von Martius died on 15 December 1868.
is an irreparable loss! I had an unanswered letter of his on my table and sent just off some supplemental fascicle of
Palmae

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, which he desired.
In vastly varied knowledge and in elegance of language, I place this extraordinar man above all his Coetans, and can only compare him to Aristoteles & Humboldt. But what inspired me above all with a deep veneration for him was his warmth of genial sympathy and his condescending benignity, which he was pleased to show me and his religious philosophy emanating from his great labors. I do not think that his orations, delivered for nearly half a century before the Munich Academy are in intrinsic depth, magnificence of eloquence and luminosity of genius surpassed by those of any writer of any nation, either ancient or modern. His private letters, which are many, I shall retain among my most valued treasures.
9
Only one letter has been found: C. von Martius to M, 25 July 1866 (in this edition as 66-07-25a).
I attended last night at a ball of the mayor of Melbourne in honor of Prince Alfred.
10
Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh. The ball was held on 25 February 1869 (Argus, 26 February 1869, p. 5).
We are all glad to see H.R.H. again among us.
In working once more on
Salsolaceae

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I came across a very curious plant, perhaps belonging to this order, unless it should prove an anomalous form of
Phytolacceae

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. It occurs among Drummond's plants and I have given to this apparently new genus the name
Trematocarya

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. But as I have failed to find male flowers, and such may exist on better specimens at Kew, I deferred publishing the diagnosis, but send it together with the plant. Perhaps you or Dr Hooker or Prof Oliver would be so friendly to inform me, what the nearest affinity of the genus may be, and perhaps it would be worthy of a place in the icones, which, as I observe — are devoted to plants of remarkable and mostly generically different structure
11
The description has not been found and was not published under this name; but see M to G. Bentham, 25 April 1873, and Bentham (1863-78), vol. 5, p. 198, under Threlkeldia haloragoides. See also specimen K779461 at Kew Herbarium. M erected Cypselocarpus and transferred the species to it in B73.04.02, p. 36. It is illustrated and the anomalous character of the genus discussed in Stapf (1915).
I feel very much indebted to you & Dr Hooker for giving
Osbornia

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&
Xanthostemon

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a place in it.
12
Hooker (1867-89-), vol. 11, tt. 1041 (p. 31) and 1040 (p. 30) respectively; each text entry is by Bentham.
Is
Atriplex semibaccatum

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really as a species distinct from A. roseum? Does the latter get not also its fruit in the lower part succulent?
I received with much gratification the closing pages of the 4th vol.
13
Of Bentham (1863-78); see G. Bentham to M, 21 December 1868.
& feel indebted for all the liberal concessions made in my favor
Always your regardful
Ferd. von Mueller
14
The remaining paragraphs are marginal notes on ff. 372 and 373.
Let me hope sincerely, that you fully recovered from your rheumatic affliction.
15
See G. Bentham to M, 21 December 1868.
Your Anther system of the Eucalypti is excellent! Perhaps I may claim the fact of having first used the anthers for diagnosis.
On
Eucalyptus

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for a monogram
16
monograph?
I continue to work occasionally, but my department is so much reduced now in means, that I cannot publish illustrations anymore! Hence a monogram of the kind mentioned
17
See G. Bentham to M, 21 December 1868.
will not be readily brought out in the most instructive form, at present.
I have still to send all
Thymeleae

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, a large lot. Then you have the rest of the Dicotyledoneae. I shall sedulously work on
Monocotyledoneae

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then, and have worked much in course of time on such difficult genera as
Lepidosperma

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,
Xerotes

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&c already.