Document information
Physical location:
GRG 70/3/67, Botanic Gardens, State Records of South Australia, Adelaide. 69.11.15Preferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to Richard Schomburgk, 1869-11-15. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id/69-11-15>, accessed September 11, 2025
Melbourne bot. Garden
15/11/69
Sir
I have the honor to request, that a set of the plants, which may have arrived by the
Gulnare from Arnhem's Land,
may be granted to my Department for continuation of the researches commenced on the
vegetation of the Northern territory by myself.
1
That is, the third consignment of plants from Frederick Schultze, despatched from
Darwin on 28 September 1869 (Wallis (2020), p. 46).
2
A similar request was made in M to G. Goyder, 15 November 1869 (in this edition as
69-11-15a). M did not receive a full set of the specimens collected by F. Schultze (see M to
R. Tate, 11 July 1879), but Schomburgk sent a set of about 300 specimens to George Bentham, requesting
that 'if not too much trouble I would be glad to receive all the names of the plants
sent'. He also asked that some be named to commemorate George Goyder and the collector
Frederick Schultze, adding 'there is a third claimant for the same honour, that is,
my own little self, (I may be wrong) but I may say, all that has been done was undertaken
at my request … My good friend Dr Mueller thought me not worthy as yet to call an
Australian plant after me.' (R. Schomburgk to G. Bentham, 3 February 1870, RBG Kew,
Archives, GEB/1/9/3493; for more on the relationship between M and Schomburgk, see
R. Schomburgk to G. Bentham, 16 August 1869 (in this edition as M69-08-16) and notes
thereto). Bentham did not name any Australian plants after Schomburgk nor any after Goyder,
but in Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7, pp. 195-6 he named
Eriocaulon schultzii
from specimens collected at Port Darwin.
I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient
Ferd. von Mueller.
Dr Schomburgk,
Director of the bot Garden of Adelaide