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80.02.00c

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1880-02 [80.02.00c]. 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/80-02-00c>, accessed April 9, 2025

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The late Mr. Maxwell', Gardeners' chronicle, 3 April 1880, p. 433 (B80.04.01). It is dated to February 1880 as the latest likely date it could have been sent to have been published in this issue. Although Maxwell died on 16 December 1879 (Gibbney & Smith), not until mid-January was his death very briefly reported, without the details given in the opening sentences of this letter, in the WA press, and then repeated in the telegraphic news from WA in the Melbourne Age, 15 January 1880, p. 3.
A few weeks ago
2
writes Baron von Mueller, by the last mail inserted.
death carried very suddenly away Mr. G. Maxwell, at King George's Sound.
3
WA.
He was found dead in his bed. Although he felt ill the evening before in Albany, he rode back to his place in the country, commenced his work in the morning, and sent a native away on some trivial business only an hour before. He was found to have expired from apoplexy. He had attained the age of seventy-five years. Only two years ago I made long journeys with him over rough country for several days on horseback to collect plants and seeds, and he was then as enthusiastic as ever, being able to endure great fatigue till the last of his bush life. More than thirty years ago he conducted Mr. Drummond through the Stirling ranges in the journey which proved so memorable in the discovery of many splendid plants. He was nearly always in the bush, and engaged in procuring seeds, botanical and entomological specimens, in which pursuit he is succeeded at King George's Sound by Mr. W. Webb. After the death of his wife
4
The only entry for the death of a Maxwell located in the WA online index of registered deaths up to 1880 is that of George Maxwell himself.
he lived even without a servant in the roughest style, quite by himself. Encouraged by myself he undertook several extensive journeys over then untrodden ground, eastward as far as the Great Bight, and thus found many new plants, and enabled us to extend the known limits of the range of many rare species, as recorded in the Flora Australiensis.
5
Bentham (1863-78).