To George Bentham   November 1871

[After 26 November 1871]1

 

The interference for 2½ years with me in my Department, dear Mr Bentham, has disorganized all work in the establishment here, and involved such enormous loss of time, that even now the supplemental Monochlamydeae are not yet quite arranged for you. I will however hasten to get them away within the next weeks, so that they may still be timely utilized.

You will have received from Mr Verdon or Mr Childers the contribution toward the 6th vol, as regards fund; at all events it is available for you.

I look with intense delight forward to the new volume of genera!2 What a treasure of information it will be; how it will ease the work of all generations to come! If I cannot keep up supplies, I trust you will not be impatient, as I have by this mail explained all my difficulties to Dr Hooker.

Do you prefer the supplemental species to the 5 volumes first, or will you finish the 6th vol with Orchideae. I do not care, that the latter should be rendered accessible to G. Reichenbac[h] after the manner in which he lately behaved to Mr Fitch and myself.3 It was actually on my suggestion that he worked up RBrs Orchideae of Australia.4

It is very generous of you, dear Mr Bentham, to recognize my new title. The strict letter of the regulations forbids only the acceptance of orders & medals; but a rank, like mine, cannot come under the operations of these Office rules of Earl Clarendon, even if they were confirmed by any law, passed through Parliament.

I like to mention this rank, and even his Excellency in courtesy recognizes it here. I can share it with a Lady, and thus I value it doubly; it is hereditary and was not given by the Wuerttemburg house for more than 20 years to any scientific man.

It was bestowed on the day, when their Majesties of Wuerttemburg celebrated their 25 anniversary of marriage;5 the Queen (formerly princess Olga) being a sister of the present Emperor of Russia

So — if my cruel adversaries have been vanquished, my hopes of life may not continue for ever blighted, and late yet domestic happiness may florish for [me]6

Always your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

Probably letters from you and Dr Hooker were lost in the Rangoon.

 

Monochlamydeae

Orchideae

 
1
editorial addition. Dated on the basis of the postscript. Rangoon struck a rock while leaving Galle Harbour on 1 November: 'All lives were saved, but the whole of the Australian mails, the cargo and the passengers' baggage were lost' (Argus, 27 November 1871, p. 5). No earlier report of the loss of the vessel has been found in Australian newspapers.
2
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83). Part 1 of volume 2 was published in April 1873.
3
Reichenbach (1871) criticised M's judgements, for example in the entry for Dendrobium canaliculatum asking sarcastically at the end ' Woher schloss das Herr Dr. Müller?' [How did you conclude that Dr Müller?] (pp 49-50). Reichenbach effectively accused M of incompetence in the entry on Bolbophyllum shepherdii, writing ' Wir rathen dringend, in Zukunft die Exemplare schön aufzuweichen und zu analysiren' [We strongly advise in future to carefully soften and analyse the specimens] (p. 52). He described Fitch's illustrations as being pretty but inaccurate (p. 62), a view elaborated throughout the text, e.g. 'Difficillimae eheu! sunt icones Fl. Tasm., quae per Fitchii digitos forsan metamorphosi phantastica ornatae' [Alas most difficult are the images of Flora Tasmaniae which through Fitch's fingers are perhaps decorated with an imaginary transformation] (p. 65). See also G. Bentham to M, 24 September 1871.
4
It is not known when or how M made the suggestion that Reichenbach work on Robert Brown's orchids. Some specimens sent by M are mentioned in Reichenbach (1871), mostly in the section dealing with orchids not named by Brown. In the only letter to Reichenbach that has been found, M offered to send him orchid specimens, M to H. G. Reichenbach, 28 May 1879 (in this edition as 79-05-28a).
5
MS annotation: 13th July 1871. M was raised to the nobility of Württemberg on 6 July 1871; see Karl I, King of Würrtemberg, to M, 6 July 1871, and Lucas (2013a).
6
editorial addition. — Page torn.

Please cite as “FVM-71-11-00b,” 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 18 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/71-11-00b