To George Bentham   26 September 1876

26/9/76.

 

The Gramineae, dear Mr Bentham, will go to you by the Lord Warden, which Ship will very soon leave our Port. They will be two large boxes. I got the box with Liliaceae safely back.

Your notes on Restiaceae interested me much.1 The short phrases of R Brown were to me often enigmatic and misleading. At the whole, notwithstanding the high and well deserved praise of the prodromus,2 that praise is more bestowable on the generic & ordinal notes than on the specific phrases.

What a labour could I have saved myself, had I come for a six month to London to look on R Brown's plants. This should not be forgotten when any short-comings of mine come under review. In my isolated and helpless position no one would likely have done better, and many far worse.

I admire your zeal & continued unimpaired energy, and wished only that you could concentrate it on the "genera".3 I purchased a copy of that profound work.

Regardfully

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

I have never yet seen even the print of Drude's & Wendlands Palms of mine.4 Did you write to the latter for my specimens. Up to date I do not know what became of them.

With deep regards

Ferd. von Mueller.

 

Gramineae

Liliaceae

Restiaceae

1
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7, pp. 208-46. Presumably M had received proofs of these pages.
2
Brown (1810).
3
Bentham & Hooker (1862-83).
4
Wendland & Drude (1875). See M to G. Bentham, 28 November 1876, for M's note of the arrival of the paper and his disagreement with the treatment of the generic limits of the palms.

Please cite as “FVM-76-09-26,” 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 1 May 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/76-09-26