From George Bentham   20 November 1862

London Novr 20/62

My dear Sir,

The Roxburgh Castle has safely arrived and we shall have your box at Kew in a day or two.

Since I wrote last I have finished Lasiopetaleae and the detailed examination of species has necessitated some further slight changes in the generic limits — chiefly removing Asterochiton pygmaeum¹ Turcz and Lasiopetalum stelligerum Turcz to the sect. Rhynchostemon of Thomasia although the anthers in the one are only shortly and in the other not at all acuminate — Browns herbarium besides numerous forms of Lasiopetalum parviflorum Baueri and ferrugineum etc has given one new Lasiopetalum from St George's river near Sydney which I cannot refer to any others — Brown's herb. has the great advantage in most cases of half a dozen or more well selected and well dried specimens, not fragmentary like many of Preiss’s and others.

In Tiliaceae Browns collection has added Berrya Ammonilla and several very distinct Triumfettas and a Corchorus. His, Cunninghams, and others tropical collections in addition to yours have carried the Australian Tiliaceae now to 36 viz Berrya; 8 Grewias including G. orientalis L. G. multiflora Juss. (G. sepiaria Roxb.) and G. polygama Roxb; 7 Triumfettas of which T. procumbens Forst is the only extra-Australian one; 13 Corchori including C. olitorius L. C. tridens L. C. acutangulus Lam. & C. fascicularis Lam., Echinocarpus australis the 2 Aristoteleas and the 4 Elaeocarpi — E. parvifora² A. Rich. is identical with E. obovatus and described from N. S. Wales specimens it was a blunder of Walpers putting the station N. Zealand.

Mr Brown has one Erythroxylon from Carpentaria which I at first took to be a longleaved form of E. indicum but it has quite free styles and yet I cannot consider it the same as your E. australe the venation as well as the size and shape of the leaves being quite different.

The Zygophylleae have puzzled me a good deal. No tropical botanist would consent to unite the large flowered perennial T.³ cistoides with the small flowered annual T. terrestris and Dr Hooker tells me he has always kept them distinct — in all others I follow you except that, I think Brown was right in distinguishing T. angustifolius from T. Solandri — His specimens are very good both in flower and fruit. Your T. alatus⁴ has no connection with the African plant. As to T. hystrix and occidentalis the original specimens are mislaid but I have no doubt that the two are forms of one species — A great many of our tropical specimens are too incomplete for determination — in Zygophyllum I am disposed to follow you in going by the fruit — but then Z. crenatum must be united with Z. glaucescens and we shall have 4 species which have each a var. with the leaflets continuous with the petioles — and in no cases are any intermediates or 2 forms of leaf on one specimen. There are also at least 2 with varieties with toothed or cut leaflets. Z australasicum Miq. is Nitraria Schoberi!

In Geraniaceae I agree to the union of Ger. potentilloides with G. pilosum but I cannot consider then as the same as G. dissectum — the latter includes G. Carolinianum and possibly G. Columbiana but is always essentially an annual a character more consistent in this genus than in many others — the petals also I believe never exceed the calyx which they seem always to do in the smallest flowered Australian ones.

It was quite a mistake of Nees's saying that Erod.⁵ cygnorum might be E. gruinum, the latter is a rare European plant and very different from the Australian one.⁶

I shall I think be obliged to keep up Pelarg.⁷ Rodneyarum — at least as a race what botanists may call species if they like.

Nov 21

The plants per Roxburgh Castle came to Kew this morning.

The Great Britain's arrival is announced so that now all is safe so far as having reached this. I am now beginning Rutaceae and when they are done I shall send you a couple of boxes back.

Nov 24

Yours of 24th Sept just received and many thanks for all the valuable matter it contains. I shall of course go over Rhamneae again with your materials and probably follow you in many of your reductions — but former experience of the uncertainty of conclusions founded on what has once appeared to be very satisfactory evidence must make one cautious of going too much against the tide in reduction of species, as we are no more infallible than the species makers, and although I do not go to the length of the Darwinians as to the gradual formation of all species, yet the facts now daily coming to light do tend to show that varieties in many cases acquire permanence as races which again assume all the characters of what we should call true species and must be treated as such. I admitted temporarily some sp. of Pomaderris and Cryptandra with hesitation & subject to revision — on the other hand in this as in other cases we have probably some Western Spyridiums which you have not. In general the plants supplementary to yours which we have are Drummond's from the West, Brown's Cunningham's McGillivrays and a few others from the N.E. and Cunningham’s and Bynoe's (Wickham & Stokes in the Beagle) from the N.W. Unfortunately what appears the best set of the Beagle plants is amongst the inaccessible stores in the British Museum.⁸ They brought the Adansonia and many other interesting Victoria river plants which have remained ever since untouched.

As to Brachychiton I never think a genus good founded on a character derived from a single organ, and so it is that a seed character of ordinal importance in one case is of no more than specific value in another. One Polygala one Erythroxylon has thick fleshy cotyledons without albumen, another has leafy cotyledons and thick fleshy albumen. The position of the radicle relative to the hilum is I believe variable in some Guttiferous genera with solitary seeds and in many genera where there are several seeds in a cell — in the latter case however you would say it is according to whether the upper or lower seeds are matured. In Sterculia however we have several striking characters derived from the flower, others from the fruit, others from the seed, but they never go together and none of them are indicated by differences in habit and inflorescence and therefore I consider them all bad except as artificial [sections] except perhaps the African Cola (including Courtenia) which is a shade better being recognisable both in flower and fruit.

As to Labillardiere's Stackhousia his specimens show that his Stackhousia monogyna was made up of flowering ones of S. monogyna with the fruit of S. spathulata. He gathered several specimens of most of his plants which were liberally distributed by the late Mr Webb who purchased his herbarium now at Florence.

In working up Malvaceae I have ascertained that S.⁹ dictyocarpa was identical with S. subspicata — I had at first no good flowers.¹⁰

I have now gone over most of the genera that the late Dr Steetz worked up and although he is infinitely better than the Steudel's & Co who have spoiled the Plantae Preissianae still I do not find him so accurate nor his views so good as I at first thought. The analysis I am obliged to make of every species and in many cases of many specimens of each species enables me to correct many of my own errors — and at the same time to form pretty good judgements of the capabilities of those who have worked before me. Among Germans whom I always admire from having had so much personal experience of them many are most accurate — unfortunately the accurate ones are generally so diffuse that their observations are drowned in an ocean of words that you have scarcely patience and often not time to dive into. Some like Miquel (who by the bye is a Dutchman) with very great knowledge and abilities spoil all by excessive haste — and in all the plant collections he has taken a part in describing he has for this reason made more than his share of the blunders we all make.

Ever yours sincerely

George Bentham

Adansonia

Asterochiton pygmaeum

Berrya Ammonilla

Brachychiton

Cola

Corchorus acutangulus

Corchorus fascicularis

Corchorus olitorius

Corchorus Tridens

Courtenia

Cryptandra

Echinocarpus australis

Elaeocarpus obovatus

Elaeocarpus parvifora

Erodium cygnorum

Erodium gruinum

Erythroxylon australe

Erythroxylon indicum

Geraniaceae

Geranium Carolinianum

Geranium Columbiana

Geranium dissectum

Geranium pilosum

Geranium potentilloides

Grewia multiflora

Grewia orientalis

Grewia polygama

Grewia sepiaria

Lasiopetaleae

Lasiopetalum Baueri

Lasiopetalum Ferrugineum

Lasiopetalum parviflorum

Lasiopetalum stelligerum

Malvaceae

Nitraria Schoberi

Pelargonium Rodneyarum

Polygala

Pomaderris

Rhamneae

Sida dictyocarpa

Sida subspicata

Spyridium

Stackhousia monogyna

Stackhousia spathulata

Sterculia

Thomasia sect. Rhynchostemon

Tiliaceae

Tribulus alatus

Tribulus angustifolius

Tribulus cistoides

Tribulus hystrix

Tribulus occidentalis

Tribulus Solandri

Tribulus terrestris

Triumfetta procumbens

Zygophylleae

Zygophyllum australasicum

Zygophyllum crenatum

Zygophyllum glaucescens