Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 72.12.17

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

George Bentham to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1872-12-17. 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/72-12-17>, accessed September 11, 2025

25, WILTON PLACE. S.W.
17 Decr 1872
My dear Sir
A box was sent off last week from Kew with your
Coniferae

Search for Coniferae in

and allied families as far as the box would hold. The large parcels of
Cycadeae

Search for Cycadeae in

and the remaining
Casuarineae

Search for Casuarineae in

and
Urticeae

Search for Urticeae in

will go in a box which I shall have made up in a few days. I have gone through the genus Ficus without waiting for the Prodromus as I find on correspondence with M. Bureau that he will scarcely begin upon the Australian and Indian ones for some months.
1
Bureau (1873). See G. Bentham to M, 17 April 1872, and notes to M to G. Bentham, 18 March 1872 (in this edition as 72-03-18a).
I make out 33 or 34 species of which 8 are I think are identical with Archipelago species besides F. nesophila and F. Cunninghamii (Fraseri) which are perhaps varieties only of F. infectoria. I have sent the list with synonyms to M Bureau who is now regularly installed at the herbarium of the Jardin des Plantes It would be rendering a service to science if as soon as convenient after receiving back your specimens you would make up a set for the Paris Herbarium as well of Ficus and other
Artocarpeae

Search for Artocarpeae in

as of
Casuarineae

Search for Casuarineae in

which M. Poisson of the Paris Herbarium has been studying with reference to the New Caledonian ones
2
Poisson (1874) acknowledges specimens sent by Bentham and by M, and cites specimens from M's collection.
At the British Museum they have lately found the missing parcel of Brown's
Thymeleae

Search for Thymeleae in

&
Santalaceae

Search for Santalaceae in

I have gone them over and ascertained that we were mistaken about Browns
Pimelea brevifolia

Search for Pimelea brevifolia in

. There is but a single specimen which is undoubtedly Meissner's P. modesta, and the species we called P. brevifolia must take a new name.
3
In Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 12, Brown's older name (R. Brown (1810), p. 359) is retained and Meissner's P. modesta is sunk in synonomy; the name under discussion is what Meissner had called P. brevifolia, which Bentham suppressed and named as P. brachyphylla, p. 11. Vol. 6 was issued in September 1873 (TL2).
In Ficus I find that Dallachy had unfortunately confounded F. magnifolia and F. hispida (as he admits in later notes) and had sent you fruits of the latter with the large-leaved branches of the former, which is a Eusyce and not a Covellia
Your F. vesca appears to me to be precisely the F. glomerata Willd.
I have admitted as new and distinct species your F. colossea, F. validinervis, F. ehretioides, F. mollior, F. stenocarpa (with unisexual receptacles, the males cylindrical the females ovoid.-globose), F. fasciculata and F. casearia, besides two to which you had not given names and those which you or Miquel had already published, although I have had to suppress a good many of Miquel's
I have adopted Bureau's views as to
Malaisia

Search for Malaisia in

Cudrania

Search for Cudrania in

Pseudomorus

Search for Pseudomorus in

and
Fatoua

Search for Fatoua in

consisting each of a single species. In Trema (or Sponia) we must I think admit three Australian species — orientalis, velutina and aspera unless we unite as one species almost the whole of the Asiatic and African ones.
Celtis ingens

Search for Celtis ingens in

and C. (Solenostigma) brevinervia
4
S. brevinerve?
Blume are certainly not different from C. paniculata. The specimens placed side by side from New Guinea Norfolk Island and Australia are identical
C. strychnoides cannot be distinguised from C. philippinensis
Your
Taxotrophis rectinervis

Search for Taxotrophis rectinervis in

is identical with
Aphananthe Philippinensis

Search for Aphananthe Philippinensis in

Planch.
I shall now go through the supplemental
Euphorbiaceae

Search for Euphorbiaceae in

Thymeleae

Search for Thymeleae in

etc and then begin upon
Orchideae

Search for Orchideae in

— but two days in the week are taken up with proofs of Genera Plantarum
5
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 2, part 1.
Yours very truly
George Bentham
Baron F. v. Mueller