The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: ¶ The orders you desire to be sent are nearly ready, but I shall retain them yet for some few months, in order that their absense from here is not lengthened to an unnecessary period, the Myrtaceae, ...

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Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70, f. 18. 65.01.00

Plant names

Alangiaceae
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Araliaceae
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Caprifoliaceae
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Compositae
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Cucurbitaceae
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Leguminosae
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Loranthaceae
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Lythraceae
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Mesembryanthem
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Myrtaceae
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Onagreae
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Passifloreae
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Rubiaceae
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Sphaerolobium
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Umbelliferae
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1865-01. 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/1860-9/1865/65-01-00-final.odt>, accessed May 7, 2026

MS annotation: 'Vol iii', i.e. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3.

The item is dated to before 11January 1865 on the basis that Bentham was sent Cucurbitacea, , ae, , , in Box 25, 11 January 1865 (M notebook recording despatch of plants to Kew for Flora australiensis, RB MSS 44, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne).

The orders you desire to be sent are nearly ready, but I shall retain them yet for some few months, in order that their absense from here is not lengthened to an unnecessary period, the , though I have so very extensively worked them up before, will yet absorbe many months of your labour, before they can be completed. For the diagnoses of the critical plants require, as you will find, much work so to be fixed, that a species can be recognized with certainty from it without reference to original specimens, which must always be the true object [of giving]

editorial addition — Text obscured by binding.

a diagnosis.

This is for instance not always possible with your , as I found, when trying to examine a from W.A. here in cultivation & entirely failed in determining it from the diagnostics.

The parcels to be sent to you are

Cucurbitaceae Search for Cucurbitaceae in This website VicFlora Australian Plant Name Index and Passifloreae Search for Passifloreae in This website Australian Plant Name Index -	1	fasc.
Mesembryanthem Search for Mesembryanthem in This website Australian Plant Name Index a[e]	1	-
Alangiaceae Search for Alangiaceae in This website Australian Plant Name Index -	1	-
Loranthaceae Search for Loranthaceae in This website VicFlora Australian Plant Name Index -	5	-
Araliaceae Search for Araliaceae in This website VicFlora Australian Plant Name Index -	3	-
Umbelliferae Search for Umbelliferae in This website Australian Plant Name Index -	10	-
Rubiaceae Search for Rubiaceae in This website VicFlora Australian Plant Name Index -	11	-
Caprifoliaceae Search for Caprifoliaceae in This website VicFlora Australian Plant Name Index -	2	-
Compositae Search for Compositae in This website Australian Plant Name Index -	62	-

Besides there will probably additions within the next months.

Of you have one parcel already and an other of , both of which orders would have deserved precedence for according to their true affinity.

and were sent to London on 25 September 1863 (M notebook recording despatch of plants to Kew for Flora australiensis, RB MSS 44, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne).

At first sight it may not appear as if the were a very extensive order; but the 62 parcels rekon about twice as much in number, when compared with the bulky , so many of the plant being pygmies, & take therefore up little room in the fascicles; moreover the order is rich in mono- or oligo-typic genera, requiring therefore a proportionately large amount of writing, — even when the genera are much reduced, as you will find suggested frequently in my collection.

With deep obedience

Ferd. Mueller

G. Bentham, esq,

P. L S.

President Linnean Society.

In the event of your requiring the Euphorbiaceae, they will be given over to you after Dr Baillon has [done] them in Paris; he has them now.

Baillon (1866) is his major treatment of the Euphorbiacea of Australia. Baillon's remark at the end of this paper (p. 345), 'Dans un envoi recent du docteur F. Mueller, nous voyons qu'il se trouve un certain nombre de plantes australiennes appartenant au genre Breynia, et sur lesquelles nous devrons prochainement revenir' [In a recent sending of Dr F. Mueller, we see that there are a certain number of Australian plants belonging to the genus Breynia, to which we should return at an early date] suggests that M sent him more than one consignment of Euphorbiaceae before the supplementary collection sent via Kew in 1867 (on which see M to G. Bentham, 21 August 1867). The latter was presumably the collection acknowledged in the opening (p. 352) of Baillon (1867): 'La communication de nouvelles Euphorbiacées australiennes, que nous devons encore à l'amitié el à la bienveillance du docteur F. Mueller, directeur du jardin botanique de Melbourne, nous permet d'ajouter d'assez nombreux faits à ceux que nous avons déjà fait connaître sur ce sujet' [The communication of new Australian Euphorbiaceae that we again owe to the friendliness and kindness of Dr F. Mueller, director of Melbourne's botanic garden, allows us to add considerably to what we have already made known on this subject].