To George Bentham1    December 1868

[No earlier than December 1868]2

 

353.

Mitrasacme polymorpha grows also on the Genoa River in Victoria3

354.

M. elata. The South Alligator River is in Arnhems Land.4

359.

M. paradoxa occurs in N.S Wales on the River Murray.5

365

M. nuda figured in the volume of my lithograms, is a Victorian species on the Murray.6 It occurs without doubt also in S. Australian territory, but as yet I have seen from there no specimens.

371.

Sebaea albidiflora is figured in the lithograms.7

373.

Gentiana montana. A very careful diagnosis appeared in the little book on the vegetation of the Chatham Islands. It adscends to 6500 feet (if not 7000') in the Australian Alps.8

374.

Villarsia. I pointed out that Menyanthus9 differs in wingless corollas and 3-sected leaves.10 I cannot well see how Limnanthemum can be maintained unless we form of Ipomoea reptans a genus also.11

Villarsia calthifolia I saw also in the rivulets at the bottom of the Porongerup12

382.

Hydrolea zeylanica and H. spinosa are both described in the Fragmenta V. 192 where some characters in reference to the seeds and sepals are given.13

393.

Heliotropium Curassavicum on many places in Victoria and N. S. Wales on the Murray River.14

394.

Heliotropium Europaeum, also in Victoria on the Murray.15

402.

Halgania strigosa was published in the Linnaea 1847, where as H. cyanea appeared in the Bog.16 Reg. vol XXV already 1839.17

406

Eritrichium australasicum occurs in N.S. Wales on the River Murray.18

408

Rochelia Maccoya is also a Victorian and very likely a S. Australian plant.19

409.

Cynoglossum suaveolens is common in South Australia.

Cynoglossum Australe occurs in South Australia between Rivoli Bay and Mount Gambier, where I found it already 1848.20

415.

Ipomoea Davenporti is lately found by Dr Martin on the Glenelg River.21

417.

Ipomoea hederacea. Of this Dr Hooker has this year given in the Bot. Mag. a beautiful plate, illustrative of the limbate variety, raised from Australian seeds transmitted by me.22

429.

Convolvulus erubescens. To this belongs C. crispifolius, Linnaea 1852.23

430.

C. marginatus occurs in the vallies of the Mountains near Melbourne.24

431.

C. sepium. In many part of South Australia.25
 

Convolvulus crispifolius

Convolvulus erubescens

Convolvulus marginatus

Convolvulus sepium

Cynoglossum Australe

Cynoglossum suaveolens

Eritrichium australasicum

Gentiana montana

Halgania cyanea

Halgania strigosa

Heliotropium Curassavicum

Heliotropium Europaeum

Hydrolea spinosa

Hydrolea zeylanica

Ipomoea Davenporti

Ipomoea hederacea

Ipomoea reptans

Limnanthemum

Menyanthus

Mitrasacme elata

Mitrasacme nuda

Mitrasacme paradoxa

Mitrasacme polymorpha

Rochelia Maccoya

Sebaea albidiflora

Villarsia calthifolia

 
1
MS annotation :'Vol iv'. The correspondent is identified as Bentham since the comments refer to Bentham's treatment of the species in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 4, on the pages indicated.
2
Dated by reference to G. Bentham to M, 2 October 1868 and 29 October 1868, which indicate that the sheets corresponding to Bentham (1863-78), vol. 4, pp. 369–416 were ready, but not received as clean proofs, by 2 October and that the sheets ready by 29 October were sent with that mail. M to G. Bentham, 1 January 1869, includes responses to the letter from Bentham of 29 October. The reference to the plate of Ipomoeae hederacea (Hooker [1868]) suggests a date of December 1868 for this folio, although it might have been completed in the early part of 1869.
3
Bentham had not given any locality record from Victoria; the closest locality was a collection attributed to M from Twofold Bay, on the NSW south coast and not far from the Genoa River. That is also the southernmost location given by M in B68.03.04, p. 131.
4
Bentham included Leichhardt’s collection from ‘table land of South Alligator river’ as a Queensland locality record.
5
Bentham had not given any locality record for NSW and the collections listed from Victoria and SA, mostly M’s, were not from localities near the Murray. M did not include distribution data with his mention of this species in B59.04.04, p. 130, and was unspecific in B68.03.04, p. 131.
6
B65.13.04, plate 60, illustrates Logania nuda, treated under that name by Bentham on p. 365. M appears to have written ‘M. nuda’ in error for ‘L. nuda.’ Bentham gave no locality record for Victoria or SA, and cited only M’s description in B59.04.04, p. 129, which listed a collection made by J. Dallachy ‘in collibus arenosis prope Kulkyne ad flumen Murray’, i.e. near the Hattah Lakes in NW Victoria.
7
B65.13.04, plate 61. Bentham cited only ‘Hook. f. Fl. Tasm ii. 367’ (i.e. J. Hooker [1855-60]] as a secondary literature source in addition to M’s description in B55.09.02, p. 46, republished in B56.06.01, p. 164.
8
B64.13.02, pp 40-41, where M commented that the plant was also 'abundant on meadows of the Australian Alps at an elevation of 4000-6000'.' Bentham cited five secondary references, but did not include M’s treatment, under Gentiana saxosa (in which he had included G. Montana, arguing that 'the number of described Gentianae must be largely reduced'). Bentham’s distribution data for Victoria included the information attributed to M that it was found ‘at an elevation of 4000 to 5000 ft.’
9
Menyanthes?
10
B68.03.04, p. 137, in entry for Villarsia crenata.
11
Bentham argued (p. 378) that if the reunification of L imnantheum with V illarsia proposed by M were followed, it ‘would entail re-uniting the whole tribe ... into Menyanthes, which would then be divided into sections corresponding to the present genera, a course which does not appear to be of much practical advantage, whilst it would add above twenty names to the synonymy’. M had reduced Limantheum to a section of Villarsis in his treatment of Gentianeae in B68.03.04, pp. 136– 142. See Lucas (2001) for a discussion of the differences between M’s and Bentham’s criteria for generic status.
12
 
13
B66.12.04, p. 192, under the names Hydrolea spinosa and H. Ceilonica. Although Bentham cites M as the collector, he does not give a reference to the entry in the Fragmenta.
14
Bentham gives for the NSW locality ‘Darling river, Neilson, Mrs. Ford’ and for Victoria, ‘Wimmera, Dallachy’. In B68.02.03, p. 116, M had included the Murray River in his distribution note. M is making the point that the south side of the Murray, in Victoria, also has the species.
15
Bentham did not include any locality for Victoria but cited M for the NSW distribution ‘Lagoons on the Murray, Murrumbidgee, and Darling Rivers’; this corresponds with M’s location note in B68.02.03, p. 116.
16
Bot.?
17
Bentham treated Halgania cyanea as a synonym of H. strigosa; the author of H. strigosa was given as ‘Schlect. Linnaea, xx, 614’ [published October 1847] and that of H. cyanea as ‘Lindl. Swan Riv. App. 40’ [published 1839]. M is arguing that the earliest name published for the species being synonymized should be preferred.
18
Bentham gave no locality record for NSW and did not include the Murray River among the Victorian locations given.
19
The only locality Bentham gave was ‘N. S. Wales. Murray Desert towards the Darling river, F. Mueller’; this corresponds to the distribution in B59.04.04, p. 115, under M’s original description as Maccoya plurisepalea, cited by Bentham.
20
Bentham gave no SA distribution for these species; M mentioned a SA locality for Cynoglossum suaveolens, but not for C. australe in his notes on these species in B68.02.03, p. 115.
21
Bentham cited the fragmentary specimens collected by McDouall Stuart in the ‘Davenport range’ [near Tennant Creek, NT], the locality from which M had recently described the species in B68.02.03, p. 97. The Glenelg River referred to is a small river in the north-west of WA, not the river by the same name, part of which is the border between SA and Vic. The fragmentary specimen at the National Herbarium in Melbourne (MEL 2273331) under the modern name Merremia davenportii bears a label in M’s hand: ‘Ipomoea Davenporti Ferd v Mueller | Glenelg River’ and is presumably the one collected by Dr. Martin. There are other specimens in MEL that Dr. James Martin collected from the same area.
22
In the main entry Bentham cited four secondary references for the species but did not include the Botanical magazine plate (J. Hooker [1868]), which was however cited in a note on var. limbata under the distribution notes. Since this volume of Flora Australiensis was published in December 1868 (TL2), in time for M to acknowledge having received 30 copies by 28 March 1869, Bentham could not have inserted this note after receipt of M’s comments: presumably M missed the citation or wrote the comment as he read and did not delete it.
23
Bentham lists a number of synonyms and suggests that three other names ‘all referred here by F. Mueller, but of which I have seen no specimens’ should probably be included. None of these include C. crispifolius, described by M in B53.04.01, p. 423. M does not note this synonym in his entry for C. erubescens in B68.02.03, p. 99.
24
The locality records Bentham gave for Victoria are ‘Snowy and Broadribb [sic = Brodribb] rivers, F. Mueller’, both in East Gippsland. M gave a broad distribution record in B68.02.03, p. 99.
25
Bentham does not give any locality record for SA. M gave a broad distribution record in B68.02.03, p. 99.

Please cite as “FVM-68-12-00a,” 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 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/68-12-00a