To George Bentham1    January 1865

[before 11 January, 1865]2

 

The orders you desire to be sent are nearly ready, but I shall retain them yet for some few months, in order that their absense from here is not lengthened to an unnecessary period, the Myrtaceae, though I have so very extensively worked them up before, will yet absorbe many months of your labour, before they can be completed. For the diagnoses of the critical plants require, as you will find, much work so to be fixed, that a species can be recognized with certainty from it without reference to original specimens, which must always be the true object [of giving]3 a diagnosis.

This is for instance not always possible with your Leguminosae, as I found, when trying to examine a Sphaerolobium from W.A. here in cultivation & entirely failed in determining it from the diagnostics.

The parcels to be sent to you are

Cucurbitaceae and Passifloreae -

1 fasc.

Mesembryanthema[e]

1 -

Alangiaceae -

1 -

Loranthaceae -

5 -

Araliaceae -

3 -

Umbelliferae -

10 -

Rubiaceae -

11 -

Caprifoliaceae -

2 -

Compositae -

62 -
 

Besides there will probably additions within the next months.

Of Onagreae you have one parcel already and an other of Lythraceae, both of which orders would have deserved precedence for Myrtaceae according to their true affinity.4

At first sight it may not appear as if the Compositae were a very extensive order; but the 62 parcels rekon about twice as much in number, when compared with the bulky Myrtaceae, so many of the plant being pygmies, & take therefore up little room in the fascicles; moreover the order is rich in mono- or oligo-typic genera, requiring therefore a proportionately large amount of writing, — even when the genera are much reduced, as you will find suggested frequently in my collection.

With deep obedience

yr

Ferd. Mueller

 

G. Bentham, esq,

P. L S.5

 

In the event of your requiring the Euphorbiaceae, they will be given over to you after Dr Baillon has [done] them in Paris; he has them now.6

 

Alangiaceae

Araliaceae

Caprifoliaceae

Compositae

Cucurbitaceae

Leguminosae

Loranthaceae

Lythraceae

Mesembryanthem

Myrtaceae

Onagreae

Passifloreae

Rubiaceae

Sphaerolobium

Umbelliferae

 
1
MS annotation: 'Vol iii', i.e. Bentham (1863-78), vol. 3.
2
Bentham had been sent most of the Myrtaceae by the end of January 1864; Cucurbitacea, Passifloreae, Mesembryanthemae, Alangiaceae, Loranthaceae, Caprifoliaceae were included in Box 25, 11 January 1865 (M notebook recording despatch of plants to Kew for Flora australiensis, RB MSS 44, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne).
3
editorial addition — Text obscured by binding.
4
Lythraceae and Onagreae were sent to London on 25 September 1863 (M notebook recording despatch of plants to Kew for Flora australiensis, RB MSS 44, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne).
5
President Linnean Society.
6
Baillon (1866) is his major treatment of the Euphorbiacea of Australia.

Please cite as “FVM-65-01-00,” 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 19 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/65-01-00