Melbourne bot Garden,
15 June 1858
My dear Mr Bentham.
I have to express my warm thanks for your friendly revisal of the Acaciae; which I brought from North Australia. My paper thus having received the stamp of the highest authority, will no doubt be acceptable to Botanists.1
I would ask a very great favor from you, which no botanist but yourself could confer with equal facility, namely letting me profit from your unrivalled knowledge of Caesalpineae,2 to learn whether what I ventured to call Barklya syringifolia (a noble tree of East Australia) is to be regarded as a good genus.3 It does not agree with any in Endlicher's Genera.4 Dr Sonder pronounces it as such, but refers for confirmation to your higher authority. So I hope you will give judgement as Chief Justice. We have this tree in cultivation & I should like to enter it into my printed garden catalogue, besides that I wished to pay the Governor of this Colony a compliment for the multifarious kindness, which I experienced from his Excellency.
Can I in any way be of service to you pray give me your commands.
Humbly yours
Ferd. Mueller.
Geo. Bentham Esq.
Boultibroke Presteign5
Ferd Mueller
Acacia
Barklya syringifolia
Caesalpineae
B59.02.01.
Verbenaceae deleted before Caesalpineae.
See G. Bentham to M, 23 August 1858 (in this edition as 59-08-23a).
Endlicher (1836-40). It does not ... Genera is a footnote with its intended position indicated by *.
Boultibroke Presteign probably in W. Hooker's hand replaces F.L.S. &c &c | [Thet]field | Hereford | London deleted (see G. Bentham to M, 23 August 1858 (in this edition as 59-08-23a)). Bentham was on a tour of the West of England and the letter was forwarded by William Hooker (RBG Kew, Archives, George Bentham, Diaries).
In addition to a cancellation mark on the MS stamp there are six postmarks on the MS: Allensmore (n. d.); Kew (n. d.); London, 17 August 1858; Hereford, 18 August 1858; Leominster, 18 August 1858; Hereford, 18 August 1858.
Please cite as “FVM-58-06-15,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on