To [George Bentham]1    1867

[After December 1866]2

 

I have now ripe fruit of Hedraianthera, which proves that (beyond the difference in the stamens) this genus also on carpologic notes widely differs from Leucocarpon. The capsule is valvate as in Leucocarpon, but the seeds have no true arillus, and altho' they are adscending the raphe is dorsal. My note (fragm. V, 214) requires shlight3 alteration.4

 

Hedraianthera

Leucocarpon

1
The correspondent is conjectural. It is most likely to have been Bentham, as M wrote such short notes to him while they were working on Bentham (1863-78) and Bentham and J. Hooker were working on Bentham & Hooker (1862-83). The addressee may, however, have been J. Hooker, who prepared the treatment of Celastrineae. The manuscript is in M's hand.
2
Dated on the basis that the letter must have been written after the final part of vol. 5 of the Fragmenta(B66.13.01) was printed. The publication date of this fascicle is unknown, but it was after B66.12.04, which appeared in December 1866. Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 1, p. 998, includes Hedraianthera in the 'Addenda et corrigenda' to that volume, citing B65.10.04, p. 58, where M erected the genus. Their description makes no mention of an aril (see note 5 below) but this may be because, although Bentham had received a bound copy of vol. 5 of the Fragmenta, neither he nor Hooker had read the supplementary note when their final MS was sent to the printer before Bentham left for Paris on 12 June 1867 (Jackson [1906], p. 207); see also G. Bentham to M, 17 June 1867 (in this edition as 67-06-17a). M’s note may have been written in response to Bentham & Hooker, vol. 1, part 3, sent to M in September 1867 when it was published.
3
slight?
4
M erected Hedarianthera in B65.10.04, p. 58. The note M cites is in B66.13.01, in the 'Additamenta ad volumen quintum'; in it, M describes the seeds as having an aril.

Please cite as “FVM-67-00-00i,” 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 20 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/67-00-00i