Ɛpsilon

From George Bentham   13 December 1876

25, Wilton Place. | S.W.

Dec 13/76

My dearest Darwin

In reply to your note I believe Ægiphila to be exclusively American Æ laevigata Juss. from India and Æ viburnifolia Juss. from the Philippines are probably both of them Premnas, Æ. diffusa Andr. is entered in Steudel as Ind. or. by mistake for Ind. occ. as Æ laevigata is by mistake entered Ind. occ. for Ind. or1

In speaking of the waste of staminal power in the Australian Acacias I forgot to contrast it with the Brazilian Mimosas which appear to be much more generally fertilised although they have only 6, 8 or 10 or half those numbers of stamens and the style more exposed—whilst Acacias have the style scarcely protruding from 50 to 100 or sometimes many more stamens—2 Are the Mimosas more readily cross-fertilised?

Yours very sincerely | George Bentham

1
See letter to George Bentham, 12 December 1876 and n. 7. In Steudel 1841, 1: 29, ‘Ind. or.’ (India orientalis) denotes India while ‘Ind. occ.’ (India occidentalis) is the West Indies. Aegiphila laevigata is a synonym of Urceola laevigata, A. virburnifolia is an invalid synonym of Cassine viburnifolia, and A. diffusa is a synonym of A. martinicensis. Premna is a genus in the family Lamiaceae, to which Aegiphila also belongs.
2
See letter from George Bentham, 10 December 1876 and n. 4. The genera Mimosa and Acacia, formerly in the family Mimosaceae, are now in the subfamily Mimosoideae of the family Fabaceae.

Please cite as “DCP-LETT-10718,” in Ɛpsilon: The Charles Darwin Collection accessed on 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/dcp-data/letters/DCP-LETT-10718