Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne botanic Garden,

3. Oct. 1863.

Sir

In compliance with your request, conveyed in circular 6611,

1

Circular not found.

I have the honor of submitting the estimates of expenditure, which I would recommend as appropriate for the service of the botanic Garden and for the Office of the Governments Botanist during the year 1864.

The reduction of this vote for the coming year I cannot recommend, in as much as a great deal of extra work will require to be done for extending the Yan Yean pipes over the botanic Garden and the adjoining reserves.

5

See Lamb (1996).

Out of this vote moreover the extension of the tree plantations commenced between the Garden and the City bridge has to be effected and attendance to be provided for their maintenance. I beg further to observe, that all the smaller repairs to the various buildings fences, gates &c are to be defrayed out of this sum as well as labor to raise the vast quantity of plants still annually demanded from this establishment for the Gardens and reserves of public institutions throughout the colony.

This sum comprises two items, vize: one, for illustration of chiefly Victorian plants in continuation of the numerous lithographic plates already in Melbourne prepared;

6

Presumably M is referring to the plates later published as B65.13.04.

then 2, annual grant towards the publication of an universal work on Australian plants, issued by the President of the Linnean Society in London under my assistance, of which publication the second volume is under preparation. (For this work a special vote was passed on the supplementary estimates for 1863 and the other Australian Governments contribute also toward it)

The item for this purpose occurs for the first time on the estimates of the botanic Garden and in anticipation of the extension of the Yan Yean pipes to this establishment, the arrangements for which are under progress. The quantity of water to be consumed can as yet not be precisely ascertained; but as this item involves merely a transfer of one vote from one Gov. establishment to an other, I deemed it desirable to provide amply for the purpose.

8

The Estimates for 1863 passed the following amounts:

Purchase of Plants and Seeds £150

Expense of publishing Work on Australian Plants 250

Stores, Stationery, Timber, Tools, Flower-pots, Label 420

Forage for Horses, &c 150

Transit Expenses and Incidentals 120

Travelling Expenses 40

[Total] 1,130

The amounts for publishing and forage are less than M requested. See Victoria. Votes and proceedings of the Legislative Assembly (1863) vol. 1, p. 13.

11, I venture to recommend, that in addition to the above sums, which are with exception of the last equivalent to the grants of this year, a special item of £1200 may be placed on the estimates for 1864 for the purpose of securing the Sonderian collections of plants, now at Hamburg, for our botanical Museum. This is the most extensive private collection of museum plants any where in existence, and by the acquisition of these, which in their gradual accumulation have involved to the owner great expense and labour for more than 30 years our botanical Museum, which is so rich in Australian plants, would become equally important in its extra Australian collections, whilst the consultation of the latter will always prove of high value for the elucidation of the former. Such collections are moreover for comparison of plants under cultivation of the greatest importance, and at Kew, Paris, Petersburg, Vienne, Berlin &c the respective Governments maintain Institutions for the conservation and study of such collections, on which phytological works are always mainly based, and I need scarcely add, that such herbaria will have a lasting value for many generations.

9

11, I venture … generations is marked by a line in the margin and annotated: 'no JMcC says'. See Short (1990).

J. Moore Esq &c &c &

Undersecretary