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RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1858-70. f. 21-22 66.08.00g

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1866-08 [66.08.00g]. 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/1860-9/1866/66-08-00g-final.odt>, accessed May 7, 2026

1
The letter is dated to August 1866 on the basis that M is commenting upon two sets of sheets of Bentham (1863-78), vol 3, the first, containing pp. 113-256, sent in the same mail as G. Bentham to M, 18 May 1866 (in this edition as 66-05-18a) and the second with G. Bentham to M, 18 June 1866, the extent of which, to p. 448, is inferred from G. Bentham to M, 22 July 1866. This latter set was received in Melbourne by August. In his acknowledgement of the receipt of the second set, M reports that 'on the pages sent I forward a few notes' (M to G. Bentham, 26 August 1866). These folios may be those notes but may have been commenced after the receipt of the sheets containing pp. 113-256, which comprised the second set of sheets received for vol. 3, containing almost all the Eucalyptus descriptions. Folio 22 contains notes on Eucalyptus species in these pages as well as comments on the contents of pp. 257-448, a strong indication that they were sent together.
MS annotation probably by an archivist: Vol iii (i.e. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3).
I was delighted, dear Mr Bentham, to receive the second set of proof sheets of your 3 vol, and I am delighted also with the keenness of your research on the Eucalypti. The character of the anthers will be one of safe guidance. I will examine all the species now 1, concerning embryonic characters, 2, aestivation of stamens; 3, form of seedlings. This character is very good. I have now very many species copiously raised from seeds and find always their form so constant that safely may be relied on their diagnostic value. This shows what may be done in the same direction for other genera. Adventitious branches with aberrant forms of leaves are of course of no avail for discrimination. I shall have a drawing made of every species that comes under my cultivation, while the seedling is about one foot high.
2
In a plate accompanying the text of Eucalyptus cornuta in the Ninth Decade of M's Eucalyptographia (B83.04.08), natural-size lithographs of young seedlings of twenty-seven species are provided; an illustration of the same stage is incorporated in the plate of E. sepulcralis (Eighth Decade, B82.13.17) and illustrations of juvenile leaves are included in many of the plates in each Decade. In the text for E. saligna (Second Decade, B79.13.11), M explains that he is uncertain of the juvenile leaf form, as the 'observations [of the leaves characteristic of seedlings] commenced by me in the Botanic Garden, came long since to an abrupt close, and could since methodically not yet be resumed.'
Melaleuca ericifolia

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is one of the most common & most gregarious plants throughout all the wet parts of the Victorian territory I had just tar, acetic acid & spirits prepared from its wood &c for the exhibition.
3
Intercolonial Exhibition of Australasia, Melbourne, 1866-7; Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1867.
Kunzea Muelleri

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transgresses the boundaries of Vict by extending over the adjoining alps of N.S. Wales!
4
See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 113.
I cannot adopt your view of the purely petaloid nature of the lid of Eucalypti, because E. terminalis, E. Preissiana & one or two more have often no suture at all to separate the operculum from the tube of the calyx. The outer operculum is a mere layer of the calyx-lid. Where a separate membranous interior (not median) operculum exists there it is petaloid or responds to an undeveloped series of stamens.
Eucalyptus silvicultrix

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5
M's herbarium name: see Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 201 under E. coriacea.
is certainly not referable to E. coriacea, but is closely allied to E. odorata I studied the characters of these two trees well in the field. E. coriacea does not leave the moist mountains with prevalent Tasmanian forms.
6
f. 21 ends here.
The name Euc. confertiflora was given by Kippist.
7
E. confertiflora was described in B58.11.01, p. 96; R. Kippist had prepared the manuscript. See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 254.
Eucalyptus diversicolor

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is the Karri gum. It is the highest of all and attains 400'!
8
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 251 gives the height as '80 to 100 feet'; in M's description, B63.03.01, pp. 131-2, the height is given as up to 100 feet.
You omitted "mica-gum" from the vernacular appellations. it is very graphic.
9
See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 186.
The seedling leaves are in more species alternate than opposite!
10
See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 185.
Would it not be best to reunite
Araliaceae

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with
Umbelliferae

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? The form the gigantic Kamkschatka umbellates is quite araliaceous, & such forms as
Mackinlaya

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break down the boundary still more.
11
See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 378.
Proves the rubiaceous plant, which I named after my teacher in classics Professor Dr Klander distinct from Indian species.
12
Ixora klanderiana was described in B65.04.01, p. 18; see Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3, p. 415, where I. klanderiana is treated as a synonym of I. timorensis.