Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS M3, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 77.04.30

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

George Bentham to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1877-04-30. 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/77-04-30>, accessed September 11, 2025

25, WILTON PLACE. S.W.
London
April 30 /77
My dear Sir
A box is packed up at Kew to be sent off today or tomorrow containing your Palms from Wendland your miscellaneous monocotyledons and the remainder of your
Cyperaceae

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except 7 parcels which would not go into the box & will be sent as soon as
Gramineae

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are ready. I have left the Palms as named by Drude, who unfortunately seems not to have consulted Martius' work for he gives for instance the name of
Livistonia inermis

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to a Queensland Palm with globular fruits (L. australis) when the true inermis from Sir E Pellew islands
1
Island group in Gulf of Carpentaria, NT.
is figured by Martius from Bauer's drawings with oblong fruits, and is I suspect a variety only, or perhaps an old state, of L. humilis. He refers also to a plate of Martius' of L. australis which does not exist, Martius does not figure it.
2
Ferdinand Bauer; C. Martius (1823-53), vol. 3, p. 239, tt. 145, 146 figs 4-6; H. Wendland & Drude (1875), pp. 226-33.
I have begun printing as the copy is all finally written out for press to the end of
Cyperaceae

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— and will as before send you the clean sheets as printed off — but I have not yet any proof.
I am now at
Gramineae

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which notwithstanding the great assistance given me by General Munro is a slow process The synonymy is so dreadfully confused by the various writers who have jumped at conclusions without means of verification. Gen'l Munro has carefully worked it out and knows them thoroughly To give you an instance in the few I have already gone through
Panicum brizoides

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Linn. is P. colonum. P. brizoides Swartz is P. paspaloides (Old & New World but not Australian) P. brizoides Retz Obs V. 18 and Willd Spec. is P. fluitans Retz Obs III. 8 (not of V. 18) an E. Indian aquatic grass not in Australia but with very marked structures of the spikelets P. fluitans Retz Obs V. 18 is probably P. paspaloides P. brizoides Jacq. Ecl. Gram. and Trin Sc. is P. flavidum Retz, which includes those of your specimens which have the nearly globular oblique or curved spikelets with the 2d glume broad & gibbous and the third flatter enclosing a palea — the rest of your P. brizoides with the 2d and 3d glume equal and both empty is P. jubiflorum Trin which will probably prove to be as you have determined it P. gracilis Br. — but I am not far enough advanced yet to go over Brown's Paniaceae At any rate the name brizoides goes to the wall altogether
3
The works cited in this paragraph are Retzius (1779-91); Willdenow's edition of Linné (1797-1830); J. Jacquin (1811-42); Trinius (1828-36) which is specifically cited in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7, p. 474; and the treatment of Panicum in R. Brown (1810), pp. 189-93.
I do not think that the true P. Petiveri Trin is in Australia your P. foliosum (probably Brown's) has the spikelets very much larger and more sparse etc.
Arrangements are now made for the regular publication of two parts of Hooker's Icones every year on the 1st June and 1st Decr — I have had 3 or 4 Australian
Cyperaceae

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figured in the forthcoming No.
4
Icones plantarum, vol. 13, 1877, tt. 1206 (Exocarya sclerioides); 1212 (Evandria aristata); 1213 (Evandria pauciflora); 1216 (Carpha alpina).
I have to thank you for your letter of the 2nd Febr
5
Letter not found, but see M to G. Bentham, 12 February 1877.
— We are very sorry to hear of all your difficulties and troubles and would be very glad to do anything for you but as for our interfering with any of the Melbourne Authorities you surely must perceive that disconnected as we are with Victorian arrangements and politics and having no knowledge personally of the circumstances interference on our part would be as impertinent as useless. We have whenever opportunity occurred fully testified to your scientific merits — and beyond that we can do nothing.
As to
Acacia farnesiana

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Fraas may be very learned but he is quite mistaken as to its being an ancient Mediterranean plant.
6
See M to G. Bentham, 23 September 1876 (in this edition as 76-09-23c) and M to G. Bentham, 12 February 1877; C. Fraas (1845), p. 65-6.
Η λευκη ακανδοσ of Theophrastus is certainly not the shrub referred to by Dioscorides as being in Cappadocea and Pontus and neither is the A. Farnesiana What they are can only be guessed at — Theophrastus's may be an Acacia of which there are several in Egypt besides the A. vera — Dioscorides may be either the
Calycotome

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to which Matheole
7
Mattioli (1565), p. 192? But see Cristofolini & Mossetti (1998), p. 307.
refers it or possibly the
Prosopis Stephaniana

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. The first introduction of
Acacia farnesiana

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from San Domingo and its rapid extension round the Mediterranean are matters of historical record. And as to the name of καζια or Cassis that is given in the Mediterranean countries to various trees or shrubs giving strong-scented products but more especially to the Cinnamon the black Currant and the
Acacia farnesiana

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A. farnesiana is common in India. Those who have most carefully investigated the matter believe it to be of modern introduction however wild it may now be. The natives know it by a name by which they designate the
Acacia vera

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with an adjunct meaning foreign — (I forget the exact Indian word and at the moment I write I have not my books at hand)
Yours very sincerely
George Bentham
Baron v Mueller
I have your Fragmenta complete except the title page and index to vol VIII which I have never had
8
B74.13.01. See G. Bentham to M, 10 January 1877, and M to G. Bentham, 13 March 1877.
— have you a copy to spare? in order that I may bind the volume