From George Bentham   20 September 1876

25, WILTON PLACE. S.W.

London

Sept 20 18761

My dear Sir

The Composite which has invaded Australia and of which you sent a specimen in your last letter is Inula graveolens a common weed in a great part of southern Europe especially in maritime districts

I returned to town on Wednesday last after a six weeks absence2 and have now set to work at Cyperaceae — I shall be anxious for the arrival of the Agamemnon with your specimens. They have sent me from Berlin on loan the Australian species published as new by Boeckeler — he has been working up the Berlin Cyperaceae with great care but from what I see I scarcely think he is a good appreciator of generic and specific characters. His genus Anosporam for instance (that is Anosporum Nees as extended by him) is a most unnatural combination of very different species of Cyperus and Scirpus on an imaginary character

I hope that by this time your Gramineae may also be on their way here.3 I have been visiting at General Munro's4 and whilst there I took notes on all the Australian Gramineae in his collection and with his and your assistance I hope to get through the Order rapidly Genl Munro is now preparing for De Candolle a general monograph of the whole Order and it would be rendering a service to science if you would allow me to select for him where it can be well spared a set of your Australian ones.5

I hear nothing from Wendland about your Palms — I have worked them up as well as I could with the materials I had and I returned you yours with the other specimens I still had in the box that left Kew whilst I was away but there are still two or three of Drude's species that I have not seen

Young Balfour is working up Pandaneae with great care and doing them well6

I think of beginning to print as soon as I have got through Cyperaceae which if your specimens come soon will I hope be soon after Xmas

Ever my Dear Sir

Yours sincerely

George Bentham

 

Baron v. Müller

 

Anosporam

Cyperaceae

Cyperus

Gramineae

Inula graveolens

Pandaneae

Scirpus

 
1
MS annotation by M: 'Zannich macrostem [i.e. Zannichellia macrostemon ] Anth 4-celled'. See M to G. Bentham, 28 November 1876.
2
Bentham left London on 3 August and returned on 13 September. See Jackson (1906), pp. 237-8.
3
See M to G. Bentham, 26 September 1876.
4
Bentham stayed with Munro from 3 to 14 August. See Jackson (1906), p. 237.
5
See M to G. Bentham, 28 November 1876. Munro’s monograph was not completed ( Journal of botany, British and foreign, 1880, vol. 18, p. 96.)
6
Balfour (1880) (read 6 December 1877, issued 31 July 1878).

Please cite as “FVM-76-09-20,” 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 28 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/76-09-20