If you look through the Iconography of Australian Acacias and allied genera,1 you will find that the characters, on which Pithecolobium by my celebrated friend Martius was founded, find their counterpart in Acacia, and that accordingly also from Acacia a number of species would on the same grounds require to be separated. Indeed Vachellia has been distinguished by a pithy pod for A. Farnesiana, but by common consent Vachellia became discarded. It was not on light considerations that I overthrew in the Journal of Bot. for 1872 Pithecolobium, at all events for the Asiatic and Australian species,2 there being absolutely no difference between these genera. Whether Pithecolobium can be maintained for any S. American species I cannot positively assert. It was founded on species with somewhat succulent pods, such as the monkeys there feed on. Hence the name. But no difference in other respects seems to occur among the Albizzias of the eastern and western world. Furthermore, the well known genus Gleditschia in Leguminosae contains species with dry and succulent legumens. What I said of Gleditschia applies similarly to the still closer allied genus Prosopis.
Acacia Farnesiana
Albizzia
Gleditschia
Leguminosae
Pithecolobium
Prosopis
Vachellia
B87.13.04, B88.13.01.
B72.01.01.
Letter not found. The text given here is from Maiden & Baker (1896), p. 587 (B96.04.02), in the description of Albizzia muelleriana. The extract is introduced by: 'We have used the generic term Albizzia instead of Pithecolobium in deference to the advice of Baron von Mueller, who writing us on the subject, says : —'.
The letter is dated to 1895 as the Maiden and Baker paper was read at the meeting of the Linnean Society of NSW held on 26 November 1895, and it is likely that the correspondence about the genus would have taken place during1895. However, the specimens collected by W. Bäuerlen from Marshalls Falls, Alstonville, NSW that are presumably the ones mentioned in the description are dated December 1892 (NSW 147408) and December 1891 (MEL 58319), so M's letter could have been written earlier than 1895.
Please cite as “FVM-95-00-00,” 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