From George Bentham   27 June 1877

25, WILTON PLACE. S.W.

London

June 27 /77

My dear Sir

I send by this post four sheets of the new vol. of Flora Australiensis1 the printing goes on but slowly though the copy is all in the printer's hands to the end of Cyperaceae — the delay however will I hope enable me to have the Gramineae ready in time — though they take me longer than I expected The Order has been thrown into such confusion by Nees2 & by Steudel3 that notwithstanding the great help I get from General Munro I have great difficulty in identifying species and in fixing some kind of limits to genera

Your ferns are I believe in town and will I hope be at Kew in a day or two. I shall very soon send off a box of Gramineae — but as yet I have only finished the Paniceae and Andropogoneae

Many thanks for the completion of vol VIII of your Fragmenta4 — the want of the Index was a great impediment to consulting it. When I have published this volume of the Flora I hope you will prepare a methodical supplement with all your additions. This will give you the opportunity of giving the characters of the genera as you understand them where your views differ from mine I trust you will at the same time give a sketch of the physical features and characteristic floras of the different parts of Australia which no-one is in a position for doing as well as yourself. With regard to the general geographical distribution of the Australian Flora there is but very little to add or alter from what Hooker gave in his preface to the Tasmanian Flora5 which makes me the less regret that I have no time to work it out notwithstanding the attention I have long paid to the subject

Yours very sincerely

George Bentham

 

Baron F. von Mueller6

 

Andropogoneae

Cyperaceae

Gramineae

Paniceae

 
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7.
Presumably Nees von Esenbeck (1841).
Steudel (1855).
In an earlier letter Bentham wrote: 'I have your Fragmenta complete except the title page and index to vol VIII which I have never had — have you a copy to spare? in order that I may bind the volume' (G. Bentham to M, 30 April 1877).
J. Hooker (1855-60).

This is Bentham's last letter in the collection held in the Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. The final sheet in the folder is a clipping from the Argus, 22 September 1884, p. 5, in the column ‘By Cable From our own correspondent’, recording Bentham's death:

DEATH OF MR. GEORGE BENTHAM.

LONDON, Sept. 19.

The death is announced, at an advanced age, of Mr. George Bentham, the distinguished botanist, and the author, in conjunction with Baron von Mueller, of Flora Australiensis.


Please cite as “FVM-77-06-27a,” 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 29 March 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/77-06-27a