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RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1871-81, ff. 78-9; 1858-70, ff. 34, 31. 73.03.23

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1873-03-23. 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/73-03-23>, accessed September 11, 2025

Melbourne bot. Garden
23/3/73
I got your kind letter, dear Mr Bentham, sent on the 13. jan,
1
G. Bentham to M, 13 January 1873.
and admire the wonderful power of your continued working. Let me hope, that it will long remain unimpaired. Only through Mr G Macleay, I learnt of the distressing sadness in your domestic life of late, and I cannot refrain from expressing my sympathy.
2
Bentham’s wife Sarah had been unwell for some time, suffering from 'neuralgia and lassitude', and there were disruptions while their London house was repaired and while they searched for replacement staff. See B. Jackson (1906) and also Bentham's diary (RBG Kew, George Bentham's diary, MS vol. 18, 1866-7), which contains, for example, the following entry: '25 and 26.12.72 Christmas day & following holiday remained in town all being shut up Sarah continues very poorly and never goes out, so we have no Christmassing'.
I have again despatched a case with plant for your use, so that you may never be detained for want of material. It is the 58th.
3
Despatched per Somersetshire, 24 March 1873 (Notebook recording despatch of plants for Flora Australiensis, RB, MSS, M44, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne).
The 57th went by the Hampshire at the end of january. I hope the Kew Agent will make at once an enquiry after the case, when that Ship arrives, as Capt. Ridgers took it under his own care at the last moment, when no bill of loading could be obtained. Unfortunately I missed to send even a letter by the Ship. (I dread the chasm in the collection by any loss, and this would be severer if the material was lost before it had been seen by you).
4
(I dread the chasm … seen by you) is a marginal note with its intended position marked with an asterisk.
I will soon send an other case, which will contain the
Liliaceae

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and allied orders, also the
Najadeae

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. Then only
Glumaceae

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including Palms will be left to be forwarded.
A few stray
Orchideae

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go to you by this post to Dr Hooker's care.
5
In box 58; see M to J. Hooker, 23 March 1873 (in this edition as 73-03-23a).
I have ventured to publish on them some notes,
6
B73.03.02, pp. 28-32.
which partly lay bye since some time, as by the horrid disturbances in my Department even the fragmenta ceased to appear for more than a year. It seems that althogether I have added not less than seventeen genera to the
Orchideae

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described from Australia. The
Epipogium

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is particularly interesting, and perhaps you have advanced by this time so far among the Orchidea as to have recognized this genus also. There seems to be a fourth species of
Drakaea

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in Drummonds Collection, not referable to
Caleana

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. I shall look forward with particular interest to your investigations among the
Orchideae

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, particularly after the ungenerous expressions of G Reichenbach concerning what I occasionally wrote on these plants.
7
Reichenbach (1871). Reichenbach was critical of the approach previous authors had taken, and of their methods of working. M complained of the 'sneering ungrateful remarks' in M to G. Bentham, 3 December 1871. M published comments on Reichenbach's strictures in B71.12.03, pp. 134-5.
He might on the slightest reflection have perceived the difficulty of one, who works with an inadequate library and inadequate Museum Material for comparison. Besides 16 and 20 and even 25 years ago I could only make isolated observations, which would have been ampler and sometimes more correct, could I have worked at once with the large number of preserved plants now for us available, but only successively obtained. There is also a wide difference between anyone working on an Order like the
Orchideae

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only at random when sparingly the occasion arises, and anyone, who makes the subject a main study of life!
I look also forward with very much interest to the main grouping, as adopted by you, for the
Monocotyledoneae

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. Many of the Orders are as yet ill defined. Asa Gray worked lucidly on them, but his researches did not generally extend beyond American forms. Endlicher had not the advantage of working with such large material as now has accumulated from all parts of the globe for generalisation.
The apocarpous character breaks down in
Triglochin

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and other cases. The adnate calyx separates families artificially from others of close relationships (so is it with the character derived from regular or irregular flowers)
8
(so is … flowers) is a marginal note with its intended position indicated by asterisk.
Altogether it will require your unparalleled experience to define the orders now a day, and to place them in the best sequence.
I sent your memorandum to Mr Bernays of Brisbane, with the remark that the parties there ought not to trouble with so small a matter so great a man particularly at such a venerable age. So I trust they will feel ashamed.
9
See G. Bentham to M, 13 January 1873. The Queensland Government's copies of the previous volume of Flora australensis had not arrived. Bentham had been to see both the publisher and the Agent General (RBG Kew, George Bentham's diary, MS vol. 18, 1866-7, entry for 9 January 1873).
— The supplemental parcels are of course only sent at any time for you to look on and select from up to the last moment, not to name the plants, which I can do here. I consider it always my duty to place at your disposal all what I have to the fullest extent, leaving the use entirely to your discretion.
With best wishes for you
Ferd. von Mueller
10
The following text is filed at RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, f. 34. It is added here on the basis that it must have been written close to the time that box 58, which included
Kingia

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, was sent, and the text of the dated letter announces the despatch of that box. The folio is annoted in pencil, presumaby by an archivist when the manuscripts were sorted for binding, 'Vol vi', i.e. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6.
Endlicher has the number of species of
Conostylis

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doubly overated.
11
Endlicher recognised 28 species in '
Haemodoraceae

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', in Lehmann (1844-7), vol. 2, pp. 16-23.
I distinguish 19 (including
Blancoa

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and
Androstemma

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and 4 new species) In all I admit 44
Haemodoraceae

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. It is remarkable that the whole order is left unrepresented both in South Australia and this colony.
I have sent now along with the rest of the Monocotyl. ovario infero also
Kingiaceae

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as
Kingia

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&
Dasypogon

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have the ovary almost adnate. They connect, as it were, the Xanthorrhoea group of
Liliaceae

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with the other liliaceous plants Your
Lobelia pratioides

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has caused here on several places mortality to horses cattle & sheep this season.
12
See, for example, M to J. Kerr, 23 March 1873 (in this edition as 73-03-23b). See also M to S. Hannaford, May 1873 (in this edition as 73-05-00b).
Ought not
Liparis

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and Microstylis to be combined with
Malaxis

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?
13
Ought not … to it is the only text on the back of f. 34.
14
The following text is filed at RBG Kew. Kew Correspondence, Australia, Mueller,1858-1870. f. 31. It is included here as this is the first letter on substantive botanical questions after M received the parts of Reichenbach (1858-1900) including the plate discussed here, from J. Hooker (see J. Hooker to M, 20 November 1872, and M to J. Hooker, 25 March 1873), and it is relevant to the subject matter of the letter, including points for Bentham to consider when working in the orchids sent by M in August 1872 ((RB MSS M44, Notebook recording despatch of plants for Bentham for Flora australiensis, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne).
It seems that G. Reichenbach in Xenia (tab. 130) publishes Bauers drawing of a plant, which I described as an
Oberonia

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, but which Reichenbach calls
Eria limenophylax

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.
15
Reichenbach (1858–1900), vol. 2, tab 130; Ferdinand Bauer.
But surely habit and pollen are those of
Oberonia

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, not Eria. The text in the copy, kindly and generously sent by Dr Hooker, is not come to plate 130 yet So perhaps there you will have an enigma to solve.
16
M had given the herbarium name
Oberonia

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crassiuscula to the species, treated as Phreatia limenophylax in Bentham (1863-78), vol 6, p. 290.
It is only now also that I see for the first time the plate of
Dipodium squamatum

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&c
17
Reichenbach (1858–1900), vol. 2, tab 107.
I wonder what you will make of
Dendrobium canaliculatum

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.
18
See Bentham (1863-78), vol 6, p. 282.
Altogether the Australian Orchids now brought together will make a very respectable appearance. A few new species may still come from the jungles of the N. East and North, but the N.W. is too dry for these plants.
Has not already Pfeiffer in his nomenclator reduced
Corysanthes

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to
Corybas

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?
19
Pfeiffer (1873-4), vol 1, part 2, p. 890; the work was originally issued in parts of 80 pages (TL2) but not sequentially: for example, Botanische Zeitung, vol 30, 1872, 12 July, col. 528 reports that fascicles 5 and 6 of vol. 1 and fascicle 1 of vol. 2 had just been issued. The fascicle containing p. 890 is one of those TL2 was unable to date.
I have mislaid my copy of that work, and thus cannot refer to it.
Galeala foliata

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is very distinct from G Reichenbachs G. altissima and all the other Indian species. The absence of Eria in Australia is curious; but like
Aerides

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it might yet be found perhaps
20
The text ends without valediction seven lines from the top of p. 2.