23/9/76.
Is it not likely, my dear Mr Bentham, that Acacia Farnesiana must be regarded as of eastern Origin. It is clearly the shrub, which Dioscorides & Theophrastos knew from Egypt and Kappadocia.1 It is moreover, just such a plant, as the Spaniards in their conquest would carry with them, like Ceratonia Siliqua, and it would disseminate itself even easier than the Ceratonia.
Regardfully
Ferd. von Mueller.
Acacia Farnesiana
Ceratonia Siliqua
Annotated by Bentham:
Cappadocian [Acacia] of Dioscorides from his vague description is probably the plant to which it is referred by Mathioli comm. Diosc. 176 [i.e. Mattioli (1565)] where it is figured and which is evidently the [Cytisus].
The Aegyptian Dioscorides or [illegible word] Aegyptus of Theophrast[os] is probably correctly referred by Bodaeus in his Commentary on Thephrast 1644, 310 as the Acacia arabica or nilotica which he there figured [i.e. Theophrastus (1644)].
See G. Bentham to M, 30 April 1877.
Please cite as “FVM-76-09-23c,” 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