Melbourne bot Garden
24/1/63
Dear Mr Bentham.
I was gratified in receiving your kind letter of the 20. Nov, in which you so fully detail the views you entertain on some of the more recently examined plants of your flora. I am much pleased to hear of the rapid strides you are making forward with the work and I shall hail its issue with the greatest delight. I hope to be in time with some supplementary notes & supplementary specimens for the 1. volume, which I trust to despatch by next mail, and if you can delay for the reception of them the issue of the work for a few weeks I think you would not repent it. I am to blame, that I have not furnished you the promised extracts (chiefly on habitats) from my journals long before this.1 But in fact I was poorly since some time & not able for late hours work & fully occupied in other departmental duties during the day, so that nolens volens I was obliged to postpone the labor of looking through my extensive journals.2 But having now returned from a months exploit in hitherto unexplored and partially alpine regions, I feel much invigorated & after settling the most urgent business of the department, I intend to set out for the bracing air of Western Port & will take my journals with me for the purpose of devoting some time to their use; and some time I shall devote in collecting Algae for Prof. Harvey. In the alps I found but little novelty, but added a good deal to the list of habitats &c. I hope to get J. Macd. Stuarts plants of the recent expedition3 in time to give you the Thalamiflorae by next mail. I have also to receive from Maxwell the specimens of his last 5 months expedition to the W. part of the Great Australian Bight, having purchased them for my department;4 and from our Queensland Collector5 we will get also regular & copious supplies. You will see, my dear Sir, that we have thus the prospects of large additions from good localities.
I have been since some time deprived of the possibility of doing literary work, as my dwelling is under progress of extension & thus my library & many other things not accessible. Indeed I am driven from home, an other reason for my going for a few weeks to Western Port.
I received from Mr Joseph Nernst of Ipswich, Queensland, a Coffer with nicely dried specimens of plants yesterday. They contain no novelty, but as he intends to collect wherever he may be, there are good prospects from obtaining success also from him. Pray do not omit his name in the list of contributors
By the Suffolk I have sent to Sir Will Hooker for you 21 fasc. of Leguminosae, mainly extra-Victorian Genera. They were answered to go by an other vessel, but in my absence the opportunity was lost. I hope you have now the plants pr "Great Britain" all right. — I am glad to hear of the arrival of those pr Roxburgh Castle The Suffolk sailed on the 20 of the month
As soon as I return from W. port I will set to work with Leguminosae & make early up an other box of them, as much has been done preliminary to their elaboration for the Victorian flora.
Dr Murray collected also some plants during Mr Howitts expedition & I am promised to receive these in the course of this week.6
Your remark that my Tribulus alatus is not the genuine species interests me much.7 I had no specimina for comparison in our collection, nor access to any good figure.
With kindest regards,
dear Mr Bentham,
yours
Ferd. Mueller
I believe I proposed Mr C. Moore of Sydney as a F.L.S. in one of my former letters. Pray will you kindly arrange for his election? He is much deserving of the honor.8
Leguminosae
Thalamiflorae
Tribulus alatus
Please cite as “FVM-63-01-24,” 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 18 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/63-01-24