Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M4, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 69.12.24a

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

George Bentham to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1869-12-24 [69.12.24a]. 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/69-12-24a>, accessed September 11, 2025

25, WILTON PLACE. S.W.
London
Decr 24 /69
My dear Sir
I am happy to say I have been able again to set steadily to work and although the short days and dark fogs interfere a good deal with the minute examination of small flowers I have got through Nyctagineae Phytolaccaceae Chenopodiaceae and
Amarantaceae

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and a box containing those Orders as well as Labiatae and Plantagineae is packed and will be despatched in a few days — all but the Gomphrena parcel which I have not quite finished and keep it for the next box — There may possibly be one or two Trichinium names to change for I am still uncertain about some of Lindley's but I shall have his own specimens up from Cambridge shortly and if there is any change to make I will let you know. He has certainly confounded two under the name of Alopecuroides — the yellow one of Mitchells last and probably of the former Expedition
1
Mitchell (1838), vol. 2, p 13.
with the red one figured in the Register
2
Lindley (1829-47), vol. 25, t. 28. See also Bentham (1863-78), vol. 5, pp. 224, 227.
— and amongst the large flowered ones the yellow or straw coloured ones T. nobile, T. macrocephalum Br. (T. pachocephalum Moq.) T. alopecuroides etc differ from the red ones T. exaltatum (T. alopecuroides Bot. Reg) T. semilanatum, T. Manglesii etc. in the insertion of the internal wool
The generic characters in
Amarantaceae

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are very puzzling — one is obliged to hold on trifles — the presence or absence of teeth of the staminal tube between the filaments upon which Moquin relies so much quite breaks down. They are very prominent in three Trichinia T. Drummondii T. calostachyum and T. Fraseri and I find no trace of them in any others, not even in one externally exactly like the large flowered specimens of T. Drummondii — Upon the whole I have thought it better to keep Trichinium and
Ptilotus

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distinct the former with 45 the latter with 10 species.
3
For M's treatment of the
Amarantaceae

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, where he united
Ptilotus

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and Trichinium, see B68.12.02, pp. 227-34.
Of
Amarantus

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I have 9 species although I consider Brown's four species as all one
4
R. Brown (1810), p. 414.
— Moquin has made a sad mess of
Amarantaceae

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in the Prodromus
5
Moquin-Tandon (1849) tratment of . For a published example of this view, see Bentham (1863-78), vol. 5, p. 218.
— a great deal for want of examinable as much as of authentic specimens — and much also from taking for granted that characters observed in one species are the same in apparently similar ones.
You sent by last mail a specimen of
Ipomoea sinuata

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sent to you by M. Thozet from Peak Downs — It is certainly that plant but surely introduced only in Queensland
I had great pleasure in being introduced the other day to M. Thozet though it was but a ten minutes conversation that I could have with him. He seems exceedingly zealous and when he returns home will I trust continue to do much to make the vegetable treasures of Australia more appreciated
In another month I hope to be at
Proteaceae

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which I purpose to return to you as I get through the larger genera — and I still hope if I get no return of my complaint
6
Sciatica; see G. Bentham to M, 25 November 1869.
to begin printing in February
I am my dear Sir
Yours sincerely
George Bentham
Dr F. Mueller.