From George Bentham   18 February 1869

Feby 18 1869

My dear Sir

I had fully intended writing to you by the last mail but the alteration in the departure of the mail from fixed days of the month to every four weeks makes it very difficult to keep the mail day in mind and I missed the last. I have however not much to say that can be of any interest to you, as I have been obliged temporarily to suspend the Flora Australiensis till I get the Brazilian Caesalpinieae1 off my hands — and the genus Cassia which I have but just finished has taken me twice as much time as I reckoned upon I hope however this spring to finish and return to you at least the Labiatae and Verbenaceae.

Very much obliged to you for what you have done about the £100 for the fifth volume. I have not heard from the Agent yet but presume I shall in due time. That is however of no consequence as I should not feel justified in receiving the money untill I shall have made some progress in the volume.

In going through the genus Cassia I found amongst Cunningham's plants from the N. W. Coast a remarkable new species which I had overlooked from its not being in the Hookerian herbarium. I am having it figured for the third part of Hooker's Icones now about to be issued.2

With regard to the specimens kept by your desire for the Herbarium at Kew they are all carefully recorded and entered as donations and Dr Hooker makes it a point to mention all donations of that importance in his annual Reports.3 If the names do not appear in the printed Report it is because the Board of Works to shorten these Reports strike these names out. At least I happen to know that they did so one year — and I suppose it to have been the case since for I know that Dr Hooker is always particularly anxious to do full justice to your exertions and liberality.

The box per True Briton has safely arrived at Kew

I am exceedingly anxious to get at these plants again so as to return them as soon as possible — for every year added to the number I already reckon makes me more anxious about having too much on my hands

Ever my dear Sir

Yours very sincerely

George Bentham

 

Dr Ferd v. Mueller

 

Caesalpinieae

Cassia

Labiatae

Verbenaceae

 
1
Bentham (1870a).
2
J. Hooker, (1867-89), vol. 11, pp. 48-9 and pl. 1061: Cassia goniodes . Bentham has added a note (p. 49), 'This species, allied in some respects to C. oligoclada , F. Muell., was unfortunately overlooked at the time of making up the second volume of the "Flora Australiensis", Cunningham's specimen, the only one then known, having been accidentally mislaid in the wrong cover.' See herbarium sheet at Kew, specimens K000789234, K000799235.
3
See M to G. Bentham, 5 December 1868.

Please cite as “FVM-69-02-18a,” 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/69-02-18a