Phillip Island
19/3/63.
My dear Mr Bentham.
You will perhaps be surprised, when I inform you, that I have resolved to take leave
of absense from here for a year, a concession to which by 10 years service under this
Government I am entitled.
I am induced to take this step, as after my more than 15 years hard work in Australia,
my health has become so fluctuating, as to render a longer seavoyage and more especially
a certain repose from the turmoils of Office desirable. It is my intention to proceed
to Europe and to stay for some time in Germany and to occupy myself in rendering myself
acquainted by ocular observation with the progress of various branches of science,
and to do this more effectually and to avoid unnecessary agitation I intend to observe
a strict incognito, until I come over to England, from whence I contemplate to return
by one of the Clippers to Melbourne. Thus in all probability I shall have the happiness
of paying personally my respects to you, to Sir William & Dr Hooker Prof Lindley &
other celebrities & kind friends in Britain; but it is not likely that I shall be
with you before the beginning of 1864. I do not think it would be advisable for me
to engage during this limited time of my absense from home in any botanical investigations;
therefore varied branches of medicine & applied mathematics being probably the sciences
to which I shall devote during my stay in Germany my attention. But after my return
to Victoria I shall resume with new vigour & undivided attention the labours of my
special department
I was long reluctant to do this step, especially as I wished to be your amanuensis
in the elaboration of all the volumes of the Australian Universal Flora. But it would
be better to indulge in a timely repose, which I trust will invigorate me permanently,
than to feel that the continued overexertions will only bring on a final collapse.
It is more[-]over not likely, that I shall ever be able to revisit after this Europe
again for various considerations
& thus it is better not to defer the only visit too long, especially as I am now
37 years old. I am not certain by what route
I shall travel, but probably to see King Georges Sound, Ceylon & the Orient & Mediterranean
Countries, I shall take my departure by the April Mail Steamer.
You will perhaps be sorry, that I did not work out ahead of you the flora of Victoria
& I am so truely myself. For not only should I have been most anxious to convey what
I know of all the Victorian species in writing & print to you, but also gladly avoided
the danger of sending off to you the important specimina, on which my flora of Victoria
is to rest, unelaborated & if lost irreparably lost. — Were delay possible I should
be glad of any respit; but it would be unreasonable to urge such measure on you, when
you have so many years hard work before you. I have therefore placed in order all
the fascicles of
&
, and as both will fully fill the 2 volume, I have
directed my assistant to forward these on to you as they are required, the
first of all One advantage will arise to you out of the present arrangement, namely
that many beautiful new species, particularly from W. Australia, and which I would
have placed into the Fragmenta, will now come for their first elucidation into your
hands. There are a number of orders of Extra-Victorian plants, such as
,
&c, which can be forwarded to you without delay, should the vast material of
& of
not prove sufficient for filling one volume. The Victorian Calyciflorous Orders (except
the above) would perhaps better be retained for transmission until I return, especially
as possibly the winter cold of middle Europe may drive me earlier to the South & home
than I anticipated.
I shall however be most happy to remain in communication with you & letters will reach
me through Dr Herm. Beckler, Hochstedt, Bavaria on the Danube
in June & the following months, should not any quite unexpected occurences frustrate
altho'gether my journey yet. For who in this world is aware of his destiny even of
the next future?
The multifarious pre-arrangements in my department, so as to set all its branches
going for a whole year, adds naturally much to my work. I shall therefore in all probability
not be able to write to Sir William directly by this mail; but pray express to the
venerable man the pleasure I anticipate of paying him personally my homage, and to
witness the arrangements of the magnificent institutions, which he has by his foresight
& incessant long labours raised at Kew.
I do not know, whether I ever mentioned to you, that it would be preferable to call
your work not one of the Australian Colonies but rather an Universal flora. There
is as yet & will be for a long time much more explored than occupied or colonized
country & hence we have a large share of plants for the work, which do not occur in
the assigned areas of the colonies.
The Rev Jul. Ten Woods, M.A., F G. S, F R G. S., of Penola South Australia, has asked
me to propose him
a F.L S., a request to which I respond with pleasure, as I regard him as a local
explorer of fossil zoology well worthy of joining the Linnean Union. He is moreover
anxious to obtain thus your new transactions regularly and has on my suggestion, forwarded
his last work to the Linnean Society.
I can add no information to that conveyed by last mail to the notes on
, except that
is also found in French Island.
I hope you received the valuable supplemental box with
by
last mail
. It would be a pity if it was lost. I have not as yet the letters of the expected
monthly mail So I have to complete this after I hear anew from Kew.
I shall complete the 3 vol of Fragmenta before I go, also the report on Stuarts &
Howitts plants,
& all I hope will go to you by next monthly mail.
Melbourne 24/3/63
Dear Mr Bentham
I received your letter bearing the date 17 Jan.
and enjoyed much the information on the progress of your great Australian Flora.
I have with deepest gratitude to acknowledge the ample concession (more than I deserve)
made in my favour on the title page and to which I shall not be entitled in the second
volume, unless a timely return enables me to aid you to a considerable extent after
my return.
Your remarks on the new
from Quail Island are interesting, the observations on the Citri also.
Would it not be better you calling Planchons
, in order to avoid confusion, C. Cunninghami or by some other name, as my species
was first published.
A note on the fruit is in Fragm. vol ii, 178.
To this may be added Cotyledones plano-convexae, subrotundae. Radicula perminuta.
Cl. Carol. Moore a fluvium Clarence attulit fructus
ellipsoid[as]-cylindracias
4" longas, sexies longiores quam latos.
Ever yours
Ferd Mueller
Is not the appellation Australiana preferable to Australiensis?
