From George Bentham   17 June 1867

Paris June 17/67

My dear Sir

Before I left London I was so constantly occupied that I had not a moment to acknowledge your last letter.1 Owing to Dr Hooker's engagements a great deal of seeing the Genera2 through the press fell upon me and I had great difficulty in getting the whole Part in print and the index in the printer's hands before I started — Having thus done so little to the continuation of the Australian Flora3 I have really nothing to report to you upon and I only write lest you should think me inattentive if you did not hear from me for several months After we leave Paris we intend making a tour in Germany and shall therefore not be home till September. I hope then if I preserve my health to devote myself steadily and exclusively to the Australian Flora untill the 4th volume (which ought to include Monopetalae & Monochlamydeae or at least down to Proteaceae) is completed

I have to thank you for the 5th vol. of your Fragmenta which you have kindly sent me — we have this valuable work now complete as far as published except the 4th vol. which we have only in separate parts some of the sheets in uncorrected proofs as you sent them to Sir W. Hooker.

I trust that ere this reaches you the greater part of your Monopetalae will be on their way to Kew — for I hope to get on rapidly with the new volume — I have on many occasions examined so very many of the Monopetalous Orders, that I see no great difficulties and there are few that require the tedious boiling of the Myrtaceae. The great difficulty will be the delimitation of species, their division carried further by R. Brown than I should be disposed to admit and still further by many other eminent botanists whose views one does not like to neglect although one feels one cannot follow them.

The Exhibition here is certainly a very splendid one — you will no doubt have had full accounts of it from Mr Moore4 whose acquaintance I have had great pleasure in making

Just before leaving England I saw what appeared to be a most interesting report you sent to Dr Hooker (in slips) on Australian vegetation but I confess I had not time to read it but look forward to studying it with great pleasure on my return.

Ever yours sincerely

George Bentham.

 

Dr Ferdd Mueller

 

Monochlamydeae

Monopetalae

Myrtaceae

Proteaceae

1
M to G. Bentham, 26 March 1867 (in this edition as 76-03-26a) or 31 March 1867? Bentham did not acknowledge M’s next letter after these, dated 21 April, until 17 September, after he returned to England.
2
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 1, party 3, issued in September 1867.
3
Bentham (1863-78).
4
Charles Moore, who had been appointed a commissioner for the Paris International Exhibition, 1867.

Please cite as “FVM-67-06-17a,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/67-06-17a