Melbourne bot. Garden
25/3/62
My dear Mr Bentham.
The previous mails will have announced to you, that I forwarded on 26 December 27 fascicles Thalamiflorae pr Young Australia and on the 27. jan. 9 fascicles pr Great Britain.2 I have been waiting for a very good opportunity of continuing the transmission, as I do not like to entrust these treasures to any but the safest opportunity; and I shall probably in the course of the week be able to send off pr. "Dover Castle" the magnificent collection of Rutaceae, already put in readiness, also Aurantiaceae & some other orders. I am gradually retiring as far as I can out of my various honorary offices, and shall gain more time for regular botanical work.
I am longing for your "Genera plantarum" and repeat a solicitation, already expressed to Dr Hooker, to send me (perhaps through the Colonial Office) the proofsheets as they pass the press.3 If you can grant this favor, I have no doubt that I could furnish you for your supplemental pages with some remarks. I have for instance just worked up a new genus of Rutaceae, well marked4 & I have still some other thalamiflorous new genera before me. I have also some Sapindaceae, which I can hardly put with safety into any of the genera as limited by Blume and others. No doubt you remodelled them all. I have sent to Sir Will Hooker a description of the fruit of Tremandra.5 Its embryo is not generically distinct from that of Tetratheca!
Since sending off to you Dilleniaceae &c &c I have some additions, as almost daily collections arrive. I presume it will be best not to send these, in order that not consignment may be heaped upon consignment. In most cases it will be only affording material for additional habitats, and if you show me the goodness of sending also the proof pages of the Australian Flora, I shall have generally no difficulty of working up any additions up to the date of your last publication.
Trusting that I have the happiness of hearing frequently from you, I remain
your faithful
Ferd. Mueller
Our estimates have not yet passed.
Pray bear in mind that no synonyms should be quoted unless established by diagnosis.6
A fourth consignment will probably be sent pr "Suffolk"
I am not without anxiety about the safe arrival and return of the collections, as by any little accident these long series of forms may be lost & could not be regained.
Aurantiaceae
Dilleniaceae
Rutaceae
Sapindaceae
Tetratheca
Thalamiflorae
Tremandra
Please cite as “FVM-62-03-25d,” 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 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/62-03-25d