To George Bentham   3 December 1871

Melbourne bot Garden

3/12/71

 

P|ossibly, dear Mr Bentham, a letter of yours went to the seabottom in the Rangoon.1 So I wait with further sendings till next mail. The Orchideae are probably next wanted by you, but I have still a large box full of supplemental Euphorbiaceae &c, to despatch to you. The Confusion in the Department, mainly caused by one of the present employees of Mess Edw Wilson & MKinnon2 has thrown my bot. labours much in arrear.

You will have doubtless seen the precious document of G Reichenbach on Orchideae of Austr.3 I think, that I first suggested to him to work up RBr's original specimens, so that we might get an idea what species they represented, which in many cases remained a guess-work. I was even generous enough to send him myself a lot of specimens of Austr Orchideae, little expecting the snearing ungrateful remarks afterwards made by him. How unworthy to give me the advise to soak upplants before I describe them, a thing I have done for more than 30 years.4 After this I distinctly revoke any concessions of access to my orchideae by G Reichenbach as I do not want them misused. So please, should he apply for duplicates, let them be directly and indirectly be refused. I had Dracaea5 on my table, when his program came, and should have made the union of Arthrostylis6 & Spiculaea myself.7 It seems a pity, that one author should unnecessarily encroach on the territory and work of an other one; assuredly the bot. world is wide enough for all. The accumulation of specimens gives of course facilities for solving doubts, which the first describer not had, and that8

 

Arthrostylis

Dracaea

Euphorbiaceae

Orchideae

Spiculaea

 
1
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).
2
Not identified.
3
Reichenbach (1871). M is reacting to less than favourable comments when some of his work is cited.M responded to Reichenbach (1871) in B71.12.03, pp. 134-5.
4
Reichenbach (1871), p. 52, as part of a critical comment on M's analysis of Bolbophyllum shepherdii: 'Wir rathen dringend, in Zukunft die Exemplare schön aufzuweichen und zu analysiren.' [We strongly advise in future to carefully soften and analyse the specimens.]
5
Drakaea?
6
Arthrochilus?
7
See Reichenbach (1871), p. 68.
8
Text ends without valediction a little above the bottom of p. 4.

Please cite as “FVM-71-12-03,” 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 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/71-12-03