21 Novr 1881.
R. Istituto di studi superiori in Firenze
Museo Botanico
My dear friend
"Sir J. D. Hooker m'apprend la mort de Bentham. Voilà un grand travailleur de moins dans le champ de la botanique systematique"1
Such is textually the passage in a letter from Planchon of the 25th july, which led me to write to you, as I did.
Whence arose the mistake, I cannot say; as mistake it must be, since I have not seen the news anywhere. Let us therefore rejoice.2
“Sir J. D. Hooker tells me of Bentham's death. That is one great worker fewer in the field of systematic botany”.
See M to J. Hooker 19 September 1881 (in this edition as 81-09-19a), J. Hooker to M, 9 November 1881, and M to B. D. Jackson, 25 December 1881. Bentham's wife, Sarah, died on 15 July 1881 (see B. Jackson (1906), p. 248); it seems likely that Hooker mentioned this in a letter to Planchon and that Planchon misunderstood what Hooker had told him.
Annotated by M on the back of the folio: Copy of Extract from a letter from Professor Caruel. (letter not found).
The copy is not in M’s hand. It may have been included with M to J. Hooker, 31 December 1881 (in this edition as 81-12-31a).
Please cite as “FVM-81-11-21,” 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