To George Bentham   19 March 1863

Phillip Island

19/3/63.

My dear Mr Bentham.

You will perhaps be surprised, when I inform you, that I have resolved to take leave of absense from here for a year, a concession to which by 10 years service under this Government I am entitled.1 I am induced to take this step, as after my more than 15 years hard work in Australia, my health has become so fluctuating, as to render a longer seavoyage and more especially a certain repose from the turmoils of Office desirable. It is my intention to proceed to Europe and to stay for some time in Germany and to occupy myself in rendering myself acquainted by ocular observation with the progress of various branches of science, and to do this more effectually and to avoid unnecessary agitation I intend to observe a strict incognito, until I come over to England, from whence I contemplate to return by one of the Clippers to Melbourne. Thus in all probability I shall have the happiness of paying personally my respects to you, to Sir William & Dr Hooker Prof Lindley & other celebrities & kind friends in Britain; but it is not likely that I shall be with you before the beginning of 1864. I do not think it would be advisable for me to engage during this limited time of my absense from home in any botanical investigations; therefore varied branches of medicine & applied mathematics being probably the sciences to which I shall devote during my stay in Germany my attention. But after my return to Victoria I shall resume with new vigour & undivided attention the labours of my special department

I was long reluctant to do this step, especially as I wished to be your amanuensis in the elaboration of all the volumes of the Australian Universal Flora. But it would be better to indulge in a timely repose, which I trust will invigorate me permanently, than to feel that the continued overexertions will only bring on a final collapse. It is more[-]over not likely, that I shall ever be able to revisit after this Europe again for various considerations2 & thus it is better not to defer the only visit too long, especially as I am now 37 years old. I am not certain by what route3 I shall travel, but probably to see King Georges Sound, Ceylon & the Orient & Mediterranean Countries, I shall take my departure by the April Mail Steamer.

You will perhaps be sorry, that I did not work out ahead of you the flora of Victoria & I am so truely myself. For not only should I have been most anxious to convey what I know of all the Victorian species in writing & print to you, but also gladly avoided the danger of sending off to you the important specimina, on which my flora of Victoria is to rest, unelaborated & if lost irreparably lost. — Were delay possible I should be glad of any respit; but it would be unreasonable to urge such measure on you, when you have so many years hard work before you. I have therefore placed in order all the fascicles of Myrtaceae & Leguminosae, and as both will fully fill the 2 volume, I have4 directed my assistant to forward these on to you as they are required, the Leguminosae first of all One advantage will arise to you out of the present arrangement, namely that many beautiful new species, particularly from W. Australia, and which I would have placed into the Fragmenta, will now come for their first elucidation into your hands. There are a number of orders of Extra-Victorian plants, such as5 Combretaceae, Rhizophoreae &c, which can be forwarded to you without delay, should the vast material of Myrtaceae & of Leguminosae not prove sufficient for filling one volume. The Victorian Calyciflorous Orders (except the above) would perhaps better be retained for transmission until I return, especially as possibly the winter cold of middle Europe may drive me earlier to the South & home than I anticipated.

I shall however be most happy to remain in communication with you & letters will reach me through Dr Herm. Beckler, Hochstedt, Bavaria on the Danube6 in June & the following months, should not any quite unexpected occurences frustrate altho'gether my journey yet. For who in this world is aware of his destiny even of the next future?

The multifarious pre-arrangements in my department, so as to set all its branches going for a whole year, adds naturally much to my work. I shall therefore in all probability not be able to write to Sir William directly by this mail; but pray express to the venerable man the pleasure I anticipate of paying him personally my homage, and to witness the arrangements of the magnificent institutions, which he has by his foresight & incessant long labours raised at Kew.

I do not know, whether I ever mentioned to you, that it would be preferable to call your work not one of the Australian Colonies but rather an Universal flora. There is as yet & will be for a long time much more explored than occupied or colonized country & hence we have a large share of plants for the work, which do not occur in the assigned areas of the colonies.

The Rev Jul. Ten Woods, M.A., F G. S, F R G. S., of Penola South Australia, has asked me to propose him7 a F.L S., a request to which I respond with pleasure, as I regard him as a local explorer of fossil zoology well worthy of joining the Linnean Union. He is moreover anxious to obtain thus your new transactions regularly and has on my suggestion, forwarded his last work to the Linnean Society.8

I can add no information to that conveyed by last mail to the notes on Thalamiflorae, except that Cakile Maritima is also found in French Island.9

I hope you received the valuable supplemental box with Thalamiflorae by last mail. It would be a pity if it was lost. I have not as yet the letters of the expected monthly mail So I have to complete this after I hear anew from Kew.

I shall complete the 3 vol of Fragmenta before I go, also the report on Stuarts & Howitts plants,10 & all I hope will go to you by next monthly mail.

 

Melbourne 24/3/63

Dear Mr Bentham

I received your letter bearing the date 17 Jan.11 and enjoyed much the information on the progress of your great Australian Flora. I have with deepest gratitude to acknowledge the ample concession (more than I deserve) made in my favour on the title page and to which I shall not be entitled in the second volume, unless a timely return enables me to aid you to a considerable extent after my return.12

Your remarks on the new Pachygone from Quail Island are interesting, the observations on the Citri also.13 Would it not be better you calling Planchons Citrus Australis, in order to avoid confusion, C. Cunninghami or by some other name, as my species was first published.14 A note on the fruit is in Fragm. vol ii, 178.15 To this may be added Cotyledones plano-convexae, subrotundae. Radicula perminuta. Cl. Carol. Moore a fluvium Clarence attulit fructus ellipsoid[as]-cylindracias 4" longas, sexies longiores quam latos.

Ever yours

Ferd Mueller

 

Is not the appellation Australiana preferable to Australiensis?

 

Cakile Maritima

Citrus Australis

Citrus Cunninghami

Combretaceae

Leguminosae

Myrtaceae

Myrtaceae

Pachygone

Rhizophoreae

Thalamiflorae

 
See M to J. O'Shanassy, 1 March 1863.
M was engaged to marry Euphemia Henderson. See Maroske (1997).
by what route is marked in the margin by a cross.
I have is marked in the margin by a cross.
The middle folio, 95, which begins 'such as' is bound back to front.
i.e. Höchstädt a. d. Donau, where Beckler's parents lived and where he probably stayed for some time after returning to Germany. See Voigt (2000).
The remainder of the letter is bound out of sequence and back to front, the folio numbered 96 following an un-numbered folio, M to J. Hooker, 23 March 1863 (in this edition as 63-03-23a).
No paper by Woods published in the Society's journals can be found.
See M to G. Bentham, 20 February 1862 (in this edition as 62-02-20c).
B63.05.01 contains both reports.
G. Bentham to M, 17 January 1863.
The title page of each of the early volumes of Flora Australiensis has: '… Assisted by | FERDINAND MUELLER M.D, F.R.S & L.S ...'. From vol. 5 (1870), M's CMG is recognised and from vol. 6 (1873) his von and his title of Baron.
See G. Bentham to M, 17 January 1863.
M had described Citrus australasica in B58.06.01, p. 26; Citrus australis was named by Planchon (1858) p. 18. Bentham did not adopt M's suggestion. See Bentham (1863-78), vol. 1.
B61.13.07.

Please cite as “FVM-63-03-19,” 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 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/63-03-19