From George Bentham   12 February 1863

London Febr 12 /63

25 Wilton Place SW

My dear Sir

Enclosed is the bill of lading of the two boxes sent off whilst I was at Paris, I understand the copies of our Genera¹ were forgotten to be put in but they will go in the next box which I shall soon send off.

At Paris I verified a number of doubtful plants published by DC² and others Hemistemma Leschenaultii is a Beyeria Iberis linearifolia (Lepia linifolia Desv.) is the Murchison River Lepidium which I had described as new under the name of bicorne for which of course I substitute the name L. linifolium — Sinapis hastata Desf is a garden mistake³ it is not Australian but the Spanish Diplotaxis virgata — I made also many other verifications which you will see in the Flora.

I have been revising for press my MS which is now in the printer's hands or quite ready for him to the end of Rutaceae — I had done Malvaceae before yours arrived and have gone through them again with your specimens — Your Hibiscus Beckleri⁴ is H. diversifolius Jacq and H. solanifolius is the true H. Pinonianus Gaud. — I do not find in your herbarium your own specimens of H. Elliottii but from those you sent previously to Sir Wm Hooker I had ascertained it to be H Drummondi⁵ Turcz. I have again bestowed much time on Sida Abutilon and Hibiscus the species of the latter are tolerably satisfactorily settled but for the others especially Abutilon the specimens are often too incomplete. It is almost impossible to settle the species without good series in fruit as well as in flower. I have done my best but there will be much to modify hereafter: S. geranioides DC is a W. coast Abutilon of which neither you nor we had any specimens and remarkable for its deeply cut leaves.

I have made arrangements with the printer to get through three sheets a week so that the whole volume will I hope be ready early in June. I have also settled with him to have an extra copy in clean proof as printed off to send to you by the monthly mails I have today the first proof of the first sheet but none will be printed off time enough to send by this mail — next mail I hope to send you several.

I have done Simarubeae. I was much interested by the fruiting specimens of your Ailantus punctatus⁶ which is Pentaceras australis Hook f. — for notwithstanding the resemblance in outward form to Ailantus the structure is quite different — not only the dotted leaves flower & inflorescence but the fruit itself — opening a young one you will see quite plainly the 2 ovules thus

whilst in Ailantus there is but one thus

and in the ripe fruit Pentaceras though indehiscent has the distinct cartilaginous endocarp of its allies among Zanthoxyleae which Ailantus has not. — Your Ailantus imberbiflora is indeed as you suggest very close to A. malabarica. I have kept it distinct however as having smaller flowers and more glabrous panicles — until better specimens shall be had. A. rhodoptera is precisely the common A. glandulosa much planted in many parts of the world and now made so much of for silk worms. I have carefully reexamined Cadellia — the additional pair of ovules which both Hooker & myself saw in 2 fl. we formerly dissected were we now think monstrous productions probably from some insect puncture — the flowers we have now opened have 2 only — and in every point the structure of Cadellia and Suriana is so very much alike that the two might have been generically combined were it not for the different aspect the only real character to be relied on is that in Cadellia the styles are adnate and the ovule attached higher up so that the ovules and seeds are more pendulous than ascending.

The missing mails pr Colombo arrived at last considerably damaged by seawater but legible⁷ Many thanks for your communications including notes on our Genera which we duly note for consideration⁸

You mention having sent your account of Gregorys plants to the Edinburgh Society for publication.⁹ I am sorry for this The consequence will be they will appear perhaps a twelvemonth hence and at any rate long after the publication of my first volume which I think scarcely fair — It appears to me that whilst I am publishing this Flora professedly with your assistance all new plants you have to publish should either be inserted in your Fragmenta or other works you publish yourself and of which you send to Sir W Hooker early copies that I can make use of — or the specimens sent to me to publish if you prefer it as I always make a point of retaining your names when not preoccupied. It is only by following one of these courses that you prevent useless additions to an already overloaded synonymy.

I see by the enclosed bill of lading that the freight is charged on — Dr Hooker tells me that he wrote to you that the Kew Establishment would pay the freight of these boxes one way (you kindly offered to pay both here and back) If by any mistake you have to pay both ways pray let me know and I will account to you for the half.

The fragments you sent by the October mail were still further injured by the wreck of the Colombo — I have however inserted the Tinospora as there was sufficient evidence to show that it must belong to that genus.

I have noted for future use the various remarks in your last.

As to Busbeckea it was only on going carefully through the whole genus Capparis that both Dr Hooker and myself came to the conclusion that it could only be maintained as a section for the great differences in the calyx do not at all go with habit — and there is more affinity between the thick strictly valvate outer sepals of some American species and the conferruminate outer sepals of Busbeckia than between some other forms of calyx in the genus which no one thinks of separating — I consider one of the Australian species (your arborea I think but I have not my MS by me at this moment) as identical with the Norfolk Island one — at least I can detect no difference on comparing the specimens

Two botanists must always look at the limits of genera and species in different lights[.]¹⁰ I therefore do not make you responsible for any thing I give as my own — Where I differ in opinion from you I state both opinions — adopting yours where I have much doubt as to my own, adhering to mine when I am more convinced I am right — but always it will be for future botanists to decide for one or the other. I have had too much experience to feel perfect confidence even where I have had the fullest conviction at the time.

Next mail you will receive I hope several sheets of the work. I have already had first proofs of three

Yours very sincerely

George Bentham

Feby 16 /63

Abutilon

Ailantus glandulosa

Ailantus imberbiflora

Ailantus malabarica

Ailantus punctatus

Ailantus rhodoptera

Beyeria

Busbeckea arborea

Cadellia

Capparis

Diplotaxis virgata

Hemistemma Leschenaultii

Hibiscus Beckleri

Hibiscus diversifolius

Hibiscus Drummondi

Hibiscus Elliottii

Hibiscus Pinonianus

Hibiscus solanifolius

Iberis linearifolia

Lepia linifolia

Lepidium linifolium

Malvaceae

Pentaceras australis

Rutaceae

Sida geranioides

Simarubeae

Sinapis hastata

Suriana

Tinospora