25, WILTON PLACE. S.W.
Decr 25 /71
My dear Sir
I can now at last report that I am fairly at work at the sixth vol. of Flora Australiensis1 and if health and strength admit hope to go on steadily till I get through it. I have begun with Pimelea in which the sections must in many respects be different from those of Meissner2 which separate widely closely allied and in some cases identical species.
Many thanks for the pains you have taken to get the £100 transmitted3 — I shall shortly apply to Mr Verdon for it — but as it is usually transmitted in bills having some time to run it will not be due yet — nor do I feel entitled to it till I have advanced the work a little further.
I have finished the Compositae for Genera Plantarum4 all but a few references here and there and all is written out for Press we are now only waiting for Hookers Rubiaceae5 which are very nearly ready and we hope to go to press next month. I adopt about 750 genera of Compositae with about 1400 synonyms — Hooker has I believe about 300 genera of Rubiaceae.
If I do not write by next mail it will mean that I am going on regularly with the volume without anything having occurred requiring special notice. I have quite given up all unnecessary correspondence.
Yours very truly
George Bentham
Baron Ferd v. Mueller
Compositae
Pimelea
Rubiaceae
Please cite as “FVM-71-12-25,” 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