The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: 15/10/63 ¶ My very dear Sir. ¶ ¶ I feel grateful for your kindness in sending the 3 copies of your work to my Copenhagen friends. ¶ I made some enquiry at Baillière Melbourne firm, ¶ but there are ...

Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, f. 123. 63.10.15

Plant names

Acacia
Search for Acacia in
Aotus gracillima
Search for Aotus gracillima in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Calycothrix glabra
Search for Calycothrix glabra in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Calycothrix tetragona
Search for Calycothrix tetragona in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Chrysobalalaneae
Search for Chrysobalalaneae in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Combretaceae
Search for Combretaceae in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Daviesia latipes
Search for Daviesia latipes in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Daviesia pectinata
Search for Daviesia pectinata in
Eucalyptus
Search for Eucalyptus in
Euphorbia pilulifera
Search for Euphorbia pilulifera in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Gastrolobium
Search for Gastrolobium in
Isotropis atropurpurea
Search for Isotropis atropurpurea in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Jacksonia
Search for Jacksonia in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Knoxia corymbosa
Search for Knoxia corymbosa in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Knoxia mollis
Search for Knoxia mollis in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Leguminosae
Search for Leguminosae in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Melastomeae
Search for Melastomeae in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Myrtaceae
Search for Myrtaceae in
Oldenlandia racemosa
Search for Oldenlandia racemosa in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Roea
Search for Roea in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Spermacoce stricta
Search for Spermacoce stricta in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Sphaerolobium
Search for Sphaerolobium in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Thalamiflorae
Search for Thalamiflorae in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index
Triumfetta pilosa
Search for Triumfetta pilosa in
- This website
- Australian Plant Name Index

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1863-10-15. 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//letters/1860-9/1863/63-10-15-final.odt>, accessed May 7, 2026

15/10/63

My very dear Sir.

I feel grateful for your kindness in sending the 3 copies of your work to my Copenhagen friends.

See M to G. Bentham, 13 May 1863, and G. Bentham to M, 15 August 1863.

I made some enquiry at Baillière Melbourne firm,

Ferdinand Baillière.

but there are no tidings of the shipment of the 30 copies of your work, you so kindly secured for our Government.

See G. Bentham to M, 15 August 1863.

That the material for vol. II is shipped successively during the last months my letters will have told you. But I will repeat briefly once more by what ships these collections were transmitted.

Case 9. Ship Suffolk. jan 1863.

, chiefly Extra Victorian Genera.

Case 10. Mailsteamer, february.

Supplemental .

Case 11. Great Britain. April

, & suppl. to Case N. 9

Case 12. "Anglesey" e

8 june 1863.

Case 13. Roxburgh Castle

e. 28 june 63.

Case 14. Yorkshire, e

1. Aug. 1862.

1863? See RB MSS M44, Notebook recording despatch of plants for Bentham for Flora australiensis, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

Case 15 True Briton

19/8/63.

Case 16. Monarch 7/9/63.

Case 17. dito. , also Chrysobal, Melastom,

Chrysobalalaneae, Melastomeae.

Case 18. Norfolk 25/9/63.

& rest of small orders, indicated by you

Will you be so very friendly as to let me always know, what has safely reached you. Shall I send you Eucalypti & other at once?

Your examination of the must give glorious results. It was always your favorite order and you have brought to bear on it much weightier experience than any other Botanist could have done. Most likely you have many unknown to me, otherwise your estimate of the species excels mine. Of Isotropis you will now have the tropical I. atropurpurea & an other new species from Coopers Creek

M described in B62.04.01, p. 16.

I am glad to observe, that you agree with me in the junction of and Sphaerolobium.

See G. Bentham to M, 15 August 1863. See also Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 1, p. 469, and Bentham (1863-78), vol. 2, p. 63.

My of the Linnaea 1852 must be brought to D. pectinata

B53.04.01, p. 390. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 2, p. 87, concurred.

Is not a good species?

See G. Bentham to M, 15 August 1863. The species was considered distinct in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 2, p. 90.

That the cases pr "Prince of Wales" reached me safely I mentioned in my last letter

See M to G. Bentham, 24 September 1863.

& am thankful for your kind attention to them.

Ever with kindest attachment & the sincerest wishes for your precious health

I remain,

dear Sir,

[yr]

Ferd. Mueller

The valediction is about ⅔ of the way down the page. The following text, filed as f. 13, is included here as it is almost certainly an enclosure to the letter: see note 17 below.

I have again established the identity of 3 Australian plants with Indian ones, [vize] & and . The latter is here small flowered and therefore referable to K. mollis, which I regard as a mere variety of K. corymbosa. It is strange that the great R. Br. so many varieties mistook for species, even in his latest writings, after so long a life of experience as he must have had.

Is not the locality Nickol Bay to be spelled thus and not Nichol Bay?

WA.

From the diagnosis of now printed

B63.10.01, p. 28.

you will observe that the generic character has to be widened so far as to admit of the singular character of its valvate capsule . I find the dehiscence quite the same in Ceylon specimens. You will be surprised that I unite 17 species under C. tetragona.

. B63.10.01, p. 36.

Schauer pointed well out that it and C. glabra are identical,

Schauer (1841), pp. 245-7.

& I have never seen any second species in S.E. Australia or from Tasmania but this. The flower is never yellow except slightly so by tardy drying. It is quite possible, that this synonymy has still to be extended, because I can clearly recognize C. tetragona (with many other plants of the Murray desert) in specimens from between K G Sound

King George Sound, WA.

& the Great Bight

Could not a poisoned paper be manufactured, which would keep collections safe against insects? What a saving of time might then be effected, if the tedious preservation processes are no longer needed. Will you kindly inform me, what besides you desire to place in the 3. vol. Will it absorbe the rest of the orders not touched on by RBr.

Both the questions in this paragraph are answered in G. Bentham to M, 24 December 1863, in the section of the letter where he is commenting on M to G. Bentham, 15 October 1863.

I observe, that you in the flora Hongk. reestablish Oldenlandia.

Bentham (1861a), pp. 150-2.

Can it really be held up? I fear not, for after examining all my species & what I have of extra australian ones I find the carpological notes very fluctuating. We have 8 Oldenlandias, altho' I have not seen Australian specimina of O. racemosa, mentioned in Dr Hooker's list.

J. Hooker (1860) does not mention in his list of Indo-Australian plants, but does mention Hedyotis racemosa (vol. 1, p. xliv), the name by which the genus was treated by Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 403. Bentham does not include H. racemosa as an Australian species.

The text ends without valediction near the top of p. 4 of the folio.