Ferdinand von Mueller

1

MS written by G. Luehmann and signed by M.

Botanic Museum

Melbourne, 2nd October 1873

Sir

In accordance with your request

2

Letter not found, but the timing of this response, and the request for nine months funding, imply that it was in connection with the preparation of the 'Additional estimates, 1873-4' presented to Parliament on 28 October 1873 (Parliamentary paper, B.—No. 12). The only item from M's list included in the estimates was £100 for 'Publication of Work on Australian Plants'; see M to G. Bentham, 1 December 1873 (in this edition as 73-12-01a).

I have the honor of submitting a statement of further provisions necessary for the service of my professional department during the current financial year. I beg to add explanatory notes, in order that each item might be better understood. In reference to the estimates for the last few years submitted to the House of Commons it will be seen, that Dr. Hooker obtains for the Kew Garden about £20,000. - annually (building votes extra), of which sum a large proportion is devoted to the museum and literary service. Thinking it likely, that the Honorable the Chief Secretary may desire, that Victoria should also in future take a leading share in the progress of phytologic knowledge, both general and applied, I beg to submit for the inspection of the honorable gentleman the last numbers of the Botanical Magazine (see plate 6046) and of Trimen's Journal of Botany (see page 166-167) from my private library, in order to give some idea of the nature of the particular work indicated. A bound copy of the sixth volume of the work on Australian plants in English by Bentham and myself

3

Bentham (1863-78).

can be submitted to the Honorable the Chief Secretary in December. Respecting the acquisition of the Sonderian collection I would add, that the one of Dr. Meissner of Basle, though in some respects not so important as Dr. Sonder's, has recently been purchased for New York at nearly double the price, at which Sonder's collection is available yet,

4

Meissner's collection went to Columbia University, New York, after being purchased by J. C. Crooke via John Torrey in 1872, apparently for £535 (C. F. Meissner to J. Torrey, 27 June 1872, https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/55786610 ). In M to K. Keck, 15 May 1874, M reported it was sold for £2000, but M's source of information about the price paid for it is not known. A comment in a brief obituary of Meissner by 'A. G.' [Asa Gray] (1874) suggests that the herbarium was received in more than one tranche, but what this might mean concerning the price paid is uncertain.

and I would long ago have paid for it myself, to facilitate and extend my researches, had my salary not been for 22 years the lowest of any first rank officer of the Victorian service, whether professional or otherwise.

I considered it my duty to make a full statement of the present departmental requirements, which under exceptional circumstances may appear large, but are not really so in comparison with other departments, particularly as regards the working expenses. It remains of course for the Honorable the Chief Secretary to decide what is to be granted.