Pontrilas House Hereford
May 30 1849
My dear Sir
On my return home this morning I find your letter with the specimen of Acacia which is one of the "Calamiformes". It has precisely the foliage of some forms of A. calamifolia but the calyx of A. pugioniformis. Both of them are however Eastern species and if yours is really from Swan river it is probably a distinct species as yet unpublished. The phyllodia are so liable to variation and so few of the pods are known that it is difficult to fix the limits of these species. If you have a fruiting specimen I should feel very grateful for it.
I have been spending some days with our excellent friend Hooker whom I find in much better health than usual and in very good spirits especially after the arrival of the last mail with such good news from his son.
Are you prosecuting your investigations of herbacious parasites? Crueger in Trinidad has ascertained that Alectra brasiliensis is parasite quite like Orobanches and that Voyrias are not parasitic at all all. The former has leaves the latter have none.
Yours very truly
George Bentham
Please cite as “HENSLOW-1452,” in Ɛpsilon: The Correspondence of John Stevens Henslow accessed on