From George Bentham   12 June 1872

Royal Herbarium

Kew London

June 12 /72

My dear Sir

I have to acknowledge yours of the 18th March — the case you mention has not yet come to hand but I presume will make its appearance ere long

I have finished the Euphorbiaceae and a box with your specimens is just packed and will I believe be dispatched in a day or two

With regard to supplementary matter for the previous volumes I must not think of that — It will be as much as I can do to get through the Monocotyledons if even I am spared long enough to finish them — besides supplements to portions of a work before the whole is finished are always exceedingly inconvenient for those who have to work with the book — The Thymeleae Santalaceae and Euphorbiaceae for the present volume make up about 320 species the remaining Dicotyledons may yield some 300 more which will leave room for about 600 Monocotyledons and I hope enable us to get the remaining Monocotyledons all into the 7th volume.1

There have been several impediments to getting out any more of Hooker's Icones — great trouble with getting the artists to work etc — but the series is now going on the first part of the 12th vol will be out in a few days. It contains chiefly Compositae and Rubiaceae — amongst others I have had your Coleocoma and Thespidium figured (in the 2d part of the volume now also far advanced) — also an interesting new genus of Bombaceae from Schultz's Port Darwin plants which Dr Masters has published as Camptostemon Schultzii2

I am also having figured Schultz's no. 639 a Leguminous plant allied to Crotalaria but with a very different carina and pod I had it from Cunningham but not in a state to characterise satisfactorily so I passed it over — we have now flowers and fruit — and I think I must make a new genus of it.3

We have no controul over the publishers as to the advertisements they stick on to the books. I presume they find it pay which to them is more important than the convenience of the purchasers.

We are now sending genera4 to press so that I shall do but little more to Flora Australiensis the next three months

Yours very truly

George Bentham

 

Baron F. v. Mueller

 

Bombaceae

Camptostemon Schultzii

Coleocoma

Compositae

Crotalaria

Euphorbiaceae

Rubiaceae

Santalaceae

Thespidium

Thymeleae

1
Of Bentham (1863-78).
2
J. Hooker (1867-89), vol. 12, pp. 33 and pl. 1136, 39 and pl. 1143, 18 and pl. 1119 respectively.
3
Plagiocarpus axillaris in J. Hooker (1867-88), vol. 12, p. 56, pl. 1162.
4
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83), vol. 2, part 1.

Please cite as “FVM-72-06-12,” 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 25 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/72-06-12