Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1871-81, ff. 69-70. 73.01.28b

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1873-01-28 [73.01.28b]. 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/73-01-28b>, accessed September 11, 2025

Melbourne bot.Garden
28/1/73
I got your kind letter, dear Mr Bentham, in which you desire still more plants for vol. VI. and altho' I am "struggling for existence" to speak with our friend Darwin, and do not know what the next hour may bring me, yet I have set to work to get the Monocotyledoneae with inferior fruit or rather adnate calyx tube together, as well as all
Orchideae

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&
Euphorbiaceae

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, which came here since the main collections were despatched. The whole concern shall be sent off by one of the next clippers, certainly in the first half of February so that you will have the things about the end of April, and you will have until then, plenty to do, to absolve the vast material of
Orchideae

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by that time.
The new consignment will consist of:
fasc
Euphorbiaceae

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&c suppl
1
Orchideae

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suppl
1
Irideae
2
Scitamineae

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(8 spec)
2
Musaceae

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1
Calectasieae

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1
Taccaceae

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1
Dioscoreae
1
Hypoxideae

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1
Burmanniaceae

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1
Hydrocharideae

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1
Haemodoraceae

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5
Total
18
1
The consignment is recorded as being sent per Hampshire, 'without bill of loading under special care of Captain Ridgers' (Notebook recording despatch of plants for Flora Australiensis, RB, MSS M44, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne). Hampshire was cleared out of Melbourne on 30 January 1873; see Argus, 31 January 1873, p. 4.
Among the plants brought by Mr E Giles from Central Australia are large nuts (seeds rather) of a Zamia, found on Gills Range.
2
George Gill's Range, NE of Lake Amadeus, NT. In B75.04.08, p. 358, M lists 'Encephalartos [=Zamia] macdonelli … On Neale's River, found by J. M. Stuart, and probably the same species on Gill's Range.'
Perhaps
Zamia Macdonelli

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Casuarina Decaisneana

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he found on various parts of the desert along Macdonnells Ranges traced by him for 100 miles further west.
3
For the route followed by Ernest Giles see Threadgill (1922), pp. 132-7 and map 10. For the list of plants see B75.04.08.
This Casuarina is there the only species, and it extends southward at least as far as the immense new saltlake, Lake Amadeus. The most remarkable among 6 or 7 new plants brought by Mr Giles is one which appears to me to constitute a new genus of
Lineae

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with many approaches to
Stackhousiaceae

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and phytolaccaceous
Caryophylleae

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(
Limeum

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&c)
Gisekia

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). I will send a specimen to Dr Hooker for your & his opinion, as I may be wrong in my surmise about the affinity of this plant;
4
See M to J. Hooker, 28 January 1873 (in this edition as 73-01-28a), 1 May 1873 and 8 September 1873; G. Bentham to M, 10 February 1874. M listed the plant, Macgregoria racemosa, without formal description in his account of Giles's plants in B73.04.01, p. 129; it was described as Macgregoria racimegera in B74.04.01, p. 160-161, where he indicated that he had consulted 'Bentham, Masters et Oliver' about its admissibility into Stackhousieae.
for you must kindly remember that for many a weary month of persecution of low traducers I have no leisure nor mental tranquillity for plunging into any profound research, and may have missed finding out what may be a common plant elsewhere though new in Australia
Probably you will give again supplementary in the new volume of genera, the additional generic types since discovered; so this may prove a timely contribution.
5
Stackhousieae was considered in Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 1, and Addenda to the parts treated only Orders within those parts, so Bentham would not have considered the new genus eligible for inclusion.
It seems to me to point to affinities between
Lineae

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,
Stackhousiaceae

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&
Caryophylleae

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, to which no one formerly alluded.
It is curious that Aitons true
Casuarina stricta

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should prove identical with C quadrivalvis!
6
See G. Bentham to M, 19 November 1872.
but the latter name must stand, for it is the most pendent never strict species.
7
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 195 preserved the earlier name, C. stricta; Despite C. stricta being published in 1789, M departed from his usual insistence on strict priority and used C. quadrivalvis (1806) in his census, B89.12.03, p. 39.
The contrast between the strict growing C. suberosa and the perfectly weeping
Casuarina quadrivalvis

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is most striking. The latter indeed on account of its habit is one of the most eligible trees for our cemeteries.
Poor Edw Bowman (a near relative of the late general Sir Edw M'Arthur and of Sir Will M'Arthur of Camden) is dead! I loose with him one of my most generous and observant amateur collectors. — He was still young
8
Bowman died after four weeks of 'choleric dysentery' on 30 June 1872 at Clermont, Qld (Queensland, Register of Deaths, 1872, number C89). His death did not become widely known until later; see the unsigned obituary in Sydney morning herald, 2 December 1872, p. 10. The author of this obituary, probably William Woolls who regularly contributed unsigned articles on botany and related topics to Sydney newspapers, included in it the statement, 'Baron F. von Mueller, in a recent letter, characterises him a most disinterested collector, who will be much missed'.
I dont remember, whether I already expressed a wish, that my hereditorial title may appear on the first page of the next volume. As soon as the hostility of the Argus (Edw Wilson's paper) is disarmed, I intend to build up a household, and as a Lady shares the rank, I like it for her sake acknowledged. Viscount Canterbury, the Duke of Buckingham, Earl Kimberley, Earl Granville, Mr Gladstone and others all acknowledge my rank.
9
See M to G. Bentham, 8 October 1872, and notes thereto.
Always your friend
Ferd. von Mueller
There is only one species of Zamia in West Australia. So Z. Oldfieldii cannot be maintained.
10
The text shown as a postscript is filed at RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, f. 33. It is annotated in an unknown hand: 'Vol vi', i.e. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6.
The correspondent is almost certainly George Bentham. M sent the first cycads to Kew on 7 July 1868 and additional material on 21 March 1872 (Notebook recording despatch of plants for Flora Australiensis, RB, MSS M44, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne). The relevant sheets were typeset, but not struck off, in early June 1873 (G. Bentham to M, 3 June 1873). M had received them by September and would have seen that Z. oldfieldii had been treated as a synonym of the Western Australian Macrozamia frazeria (Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 252) when he commented on the treatment of other cycad species (M to G. Bentham, 26 September 1873). The fragment is therefore likely to have been written after the specimens were transmitted but before the sheets were received. It is added to this letter on the basis that it also contains mention of Zamia species, but the placement is tentative.