From Ferdinand von Mueller to George Bentham   24 May 1864

24/5/64.

My dear Mr Bentham

I feel obliged for the interesting communications conveyed in your letter of 25 March,1 and am glad to learn that you are making such rapid progress with the Leguminosae for the Australian flora.

I was misled by Lindleys vegetable kingdom2 when substituting an other name for Petalostylis.3 I enclose a few Leguminous plants received since I last wrote and which are adding a few species or localities to your material.

With Kind regards

I remain

Yr

Ferd Mueller.

George Bentham Esq

&c &c &c

Leguminosae

Petalostylis

G. Bentham to M, 25 March 1864 (in this edition as 64-03-25b).

Lindley (1847).

M believed, on the authority of Lindley (1847), p. 614 that an earlier genus Petalostylis (Griesebach) already existed, so replaced Robert Brown’s genus by Petalogyne (B56.11.01, p. 324). Lindley had misspelled Griesebach’s 'Petasostylis'. M’s action suggests that he had taken Lindley’s book with him on the North Australian Exploring Expedition, 1855-6, because B56.11.01 is part of his letter to W. Hooker, 18 June 1856, written from the Victoria River.

MS annotation by Bentham: 'A. [leuco]sperma = suberosa from Glenelg A.[Tumida] one from Rockhampton with [a]terete fruit may be A. [leptostachya] If so it has the fs of A [holo]carpa.'

Please cite as “FVM-64-05-24b,” 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 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/64-05-24b