From George Bentham 30 October 1852

My dear Sir

I proposed writing to you on most of the topics mentioned in your note received this morning but as you said in your last that you should not go to Cambridge till a month from that time I intended waiting a few days when I should be able to form a more correct estimate of the extent of the herbarium. I have done the four first families Ranunculaceae Dilleniaceae Magnoliaceae & Anonaceae but they are in the hands of the gluer and I cannot yet count them. As you are to be at Cambridge on Tuesday I now lose nevertheless no time in replying to your queries.

As for D^r Lemann's last dispositions are concerned his herbarium with the whole contents of his rooms in town were bequeathed to his eldest brother absolutely - but in pursuance of his expressed wishes M^r Lemann presented the herbarium and such botanical books as I should select to me - and in further pursuance of an understanding to that effect I am making up out of it a herbarium of about 30,000 species and at least double that number of specimens which I am collating with my own herbarium and having glued down on paper the size of Sir W. Hooker's and my own and this I offer in D^r Lemann's name to the University of Cambridge on condition of their defraying the attendant expenses which I undertake at £5 the 1000 species. That is to say £150 for the whole supposing the number not to exceed 30,000 species. Should the University decline the offer I have full power to dispose of it as I think fit.

In answer therefore to your first query the Herbarium (although formally given to me without reserve) is, if accepted, presented by the late Doctor C. Lemann to the University, my part in it consisting of the collating and superintending the glueing.

I have engaged a young man from Kew who assists in sorting laying out for glueing etc, and I have two women at work glueing. I have found a small quantity of paper to enable me to commence the glueing and Major Munro has undertaken the commission of ordering the stock wanted from the paper dealer at Bristol who now supplies Sir W. Hooker. The paper I have adopted is of the colour of what Sir William now uses but stouter, and I am using for genus covers a peculiarly good kind of American paper made I believe of linen.

As to the time for payment of the money I should like to have if convenient £50 by Xmas when I shall have paid for the paper £50 about Easter and the remainder when the business is completed.

When I shall have done some 6 or 8 thousand species it would be a convenience to me to send them off as they occupy a good deal of space.

There are a certain number of deal presses which will go with the herbarium but not enough to contain the whole.

I think it not improbable (but this of course I have no authority for saying) that some of the botanical works will be presented with the herbarium.

As to your second question, from the portion of the herbarium I have gone through it appears to contain

• 1. A large miscellaneous collection chiefly from Sir W. Hooker's and my own duplicates & some of Graham's and from Lambert's mixed bundles which Dr Lemann bought
• 2. A complete Madeira flora in fine specimens of Dr Lemann's own collecting though unfortunately a few of them have got much injured by insects (the herbarium generally being pretty free from them)
• 3. A very rich Canary island Spanish and Mediterranean flora
• 4. A good South African flora and a considerable number of Abyssinian plants
• 5. A very extensive East Indian flora - (amongst these however I should mention that Griffiths's Affghan collection was separately given to me previously)
• 6. A rich Australian flora, especially Swan River Port Philip Sydney and Tasmania
• 7. A very rich N. American (United States) flora generally in beautiful specimens from various localities
• 8. A very good Brasilian and Guiana Flora - among them above 1000 of Spruces near 3000 of Gardner's above 1000 of Claussen's near 1000 Schomburgk's etc
• 9. A considerable number of Chilean Peruvian Columbian & Mexican plants chiefly from Bridges Matthews Hartweg etc. amounting to several thousand in the whole
• 10. An excellent set of Jos. Hooker's Antarctic flora and a good many N. Zealand plants - also a few Arctic plants

The small herbarium is chiefly deficient in Siberian, Chinese, Philippine, Molucca, and Pacific plants generally.

What I invest in the herbarium I do not [illeg.]. I take out they form an integral part of the herbarium as presented by D^r Lemann - and the less said about that the better - indeed I should have much scrupled to do so had not poor D^r Lemann in all his last letters insisted on my taking what I want for myself and did I not consider that what I replace together with the opportunity I have of correcting a great number of names and naming so many now undetermined fully make up in value for the comparatively small number I abstract.

I do not know anything of Professor Stowe - and hope you will find his plants worth the 17'/- and a great deal more.

Ever yours sincerely

G. Bentham