From George Bentham1    10 January 1877

25, WILTON PLACE. S.W.

London

Jany 10 /77

My dear Sir

I have to thank you for your note and am glad to hear that the Gramineae are on their way. The Shannon is due I believe in the course of next month I trust the Ferns will soon follow2

Since your Cyperaceae came I have been steadily at work at them but I do not get on so fast as I expected Although I do not think it necessary to verify still less to copy without verifying the non-Australian synonymy of Kunth and Boeckeler still I am obliged to much extra Australian research in order to give the general range of Australian species many of which are much confused and Linnaeus's as well as Brown's species have been often mistaken — I have now finished Cyperus (including Mariscus) with 64 species, Kyllinga 4 species Heleocharis 12 sp. Scirpus including Isolepis 22 sp. and am far advanced in Fimbristylis in which besides Abildgaardhia3 I include (with A. Gray) Oncostylis

Browns Arthrostyles remains endemic and monotypic. I always find 6 filaments though the anthers of 3 are very deciduous and perhaps sometimes abortive from the first. The style is also very particular. The plant has been described by Boeckeler as Fimbristylis planiculmis — he has overlooked the stamens and Brown does not mention them he probably did not feel certain about them and did not like to commit himself — The Mauritius Ceylon and Chinese species are very different from the Australian one in structure and must either make a genus of themselves or a section of Fimbristylis — but perhaps nearing to Rhynchospora. That however I leave for Indian botanists to work up.

Could you kindly let me have the last number with the title page and Index of vol VIII. of your Fragmenta4 which I never have had and which is wanting to complete my copy of the volume

I hope next month to announce to you the dispatch of a return box of Cyperaceae. I trust you received the copy of Gen. Pl.5 vol. ii. part ii which I sent in one of the boxes last summer

Ever yours truly

George Bentham

 

Baron Ferd v. Mueller

 

Abildgaardhia

Arthrostyles

Cyperaceae

Cyperus

Fimbristylis planiculmis

Gramineae

Heleocharis

Isolepis

Kyllinga

Mariscus

Oncostylis

Rhynchospora

Scirpus

1
MS annotation by M: 'Answ 13/3/77. F.v.M.' See M to G. Bentham, 13 March 1877.
2
See M to G. Bentham, 28 November 1876.
3
Abildgaardia?
4
B74.13.01 includes Additamenta as well as the index.
5
Genera plantarum, i.e., Bentham & Hooker (1862-83).

Please cite as “FVM-77-01-10,” 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 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/77-01-10