Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1871-81, f. 159. 74.12.25

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham, 1874-12-25. 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/1870-9/1874/74-12-25-final.odt>, accessed May 15, 2026

Melbourne
Christmas, 1874.
Since last I wrote, dear Mr Bentham, I have finished in sparehours an other portion of the
Cyperaceae

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; so that now about 150 species got ready, and not more than about 50 are left to be done. Rob Brown & J Hooker have much overrated the number of the Austr species known to them,
1
R. Brown (1810), pp. 212-43; probably J. Hooker (1860), vol. 2, p. 79: 'I assume that there may be fully 400 known Australian ones'.
but many Indian ones may yet turn up in the tropical part of this Continent I shall probably have the whole remaining ones included in the next number of the fragmenta,
2
M's major treatment of
Cyperaceae

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was published in B74.09.02, pp. 238-40; B74.10.01, pp. 249-52; B74.11.01, pp. 255-74; B75.02.01, pp. 6-22; B75.03.01, pp. 23-40, and B75.05.05, pp 52-8.
though I do not yet know, what Boedeker
3
Boeckeler?
may have done with those Austral species, which are contained from Siebers, Preiss, & my own and others collections in the Berlin Museum. Perhaps he has come in many instances to precisely the same results as myself.
4
M commented upon Boeckeler's treatment (Boeckleler (1868-77)), including new synonyms, in B75.05.05, pp. 52-8.
Meanwhile I may mention, that I reduce Mariscus &
Kyllingia

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to
Cyperus

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, and place
Remirea

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near it, as you have done. I add
Isolepis Micheliana

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, I. capillaris,
Fimbristylis ferruginea

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, F. communis, F. dichotoma, F. aestivalis, F. miliacea,
Gahnia xanthocarpa

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,
Hypolytrum pandanifolium

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(a new species with the 6 restiaceous sepals of
Pandanophyllum

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, but quite the Habit of
Hypolytrum latifolium

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),
Rhynchospora Wallichiana

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and some others to R Brown's species, in which Dr Hooker has much anticipated us.
5
J. Hooker (1860), pp. 79-103, includes many
Cyperaceae

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species not included in R. Brown (1810).
Our
Arthrostylis

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I bring under Fimbristylis (but not your Hong Kong Species with setae), Gahnia,
Lampocarya

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and perhaps
Reedia

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must merge into Cladium. Chorizandra multiradiata (?multiarticulata) = C. cymbaria, of which since I have described the fruit.
6
B75.02.01, p. 18.
I have given a fuller account of
Evandra

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.
7
B75.02.01, p. 18, under Euandra.
Scirpus polystachys
8
Scirpus polystachyus?
remains, as it is really distinct from S. radicans. Sc. plumosus I cannot sever from S. litoralis. Sc. fluviatilis A. Gr., as yet only recorded from N. America, is here on many places; it has a very distinct fruit to all appearance, and I believe it an exclusively fresh water plant, elsewhere likely confounded with S. maritimus.
Gahnia trifida

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and
Cladium Filum

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are clearly the same. All New Zealand & Austr. specimens of Sc. triqueter belong to S. pungens, as I pointed out more than twenty years ago,
9
See M to W. Hooker, 22 January 1855, and B55.08.01, p. 236.
as I was well acquainted with these sorts of plants, when I arrived in 1847. You will of course largely add to the synonyms on the authority of the Kew collections, altho' I have swept also many of Steudels and Nees's & others species away.
With regardful remembrance
your
Ferd. von Mueller.