Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 73.06.03

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

George Bentham to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1873-06-03. 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/73-06-03>, accessed September 11, 2025

1
Annotated in pencil at top of letter by M: 'Lilia[s]'.
25, WILTON PLACE. S.W.
June 3 /73
My dear Sir
I have to thank you for your letter of the 23d March and for a parcel of Orchidaceous specimens per port which came just in time as I yesterday sent off the
Hydrocharideae

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Scitamineae

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and
Orchideae

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to the printer.
2
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, pp. 255-396.
I had already determined the Epipogum which is the same as the Asiatic E. nutans.
3
See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 308, where he attributes the name E. guilfoylii to M; although M described the species in B73.03.02, p. 30, he did so without assigning a name.
The Goodyeras are puzzling none of them true Goodyeras though I leave the two in the genus G. viridiflora is certainly the same as
Georchis cordata

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from [Khasia] and probly
4
probably?
the same as G. viridiflora Blume of which we have no specimen
5
For the second species, Bentham retained M's name, G. polygonoides, B73.03.02, p. 29.
— I have been obliged to take the characters of the
Scitamineae

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from the proof slip you sent
6
B73.03.02, pp. 24-7; see comment in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 260.
for the box per Hampshire (which arrived safely) only contained the
Alpinia coerulea

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the
Musa

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and the
Curcuma

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which we had already and the box per Somersetshire is not yet arrived
I have sent off by this post five more sheets of the Flora down to p. 208 Three more sheets are in type but the clean copies not yet struck off and this week's proofs will commence Monocotyledons
I trust you will have received safe the box of
Orchideae

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in which was also a copy of the new part of our Genera Plantarum
7
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 2, part 1.
I hope that Mr Macleay will bring back better accounts of yourself and your goings-on
8
George Macleay had delivered to M a case of deciduous trees from Kew; see M to J. Hooker, 25 March 1873.
I should much like myself to have paid you a visit but I am far too old to think of it
Yours ever truly
George Bentham
Baron Ferd v. Mueller
I follow Brown in including
Apostasieae

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as a tribe of
Orchideae

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9
Robert Brown (1773-1858); see Wallich (1830-32), vol. 1, pp. 74-75, quoting 'Brown MSS'.
Apostasia

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though anomalous as a whole yet piecemeal has the perianth of
Thelymitra

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the habit of
Corymbis

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the ovary of
Selenopodium

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10
Selenipedium? Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 396 has Selenipodium . See Hooker (1865-1904), vol. 124, text accompanying t. 7573, for comments on the spelling of the genus name.
and the stamens of
Neuwiedia

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I was disappointed in not finding among your
Hydrocharideae

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an (
Ottelia

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?) which we have from Drummond and from the Wendu
11
Wando?
river in Victoria from Roberston like a small slender variety of the common one but with a very thin membranous spatha and the capsule with only very thin small remains of the base of the perianth, our specimens are all in fruit only so that I am not certain of the genus.
12
See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 6, p. 257, under O.? tenera.
It would be well to search for it in your Victorian waters