Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne

6 Febr. 1882.

To the honorable Dr L. L. Smith, M.L.A.

&c&c&c

Permit me, dear Dr Smith, to bring under your consideration as a medical Gentleman a subject of professional and scientific importance to our colony, especially as your well known interest in science and your influence as a Minister of the Crown would greatly facilitate the object in view. The sudden death of Dr Sonder of Hamburg, one of the leading botanists of this age and a celebrated author of numerous works, renderes now his magnificent collection of dried plants purchasable. For more than fifty years the lamented Savant devoted large monetary means and all his spare-time to the acquisition of these collections, and to the accurate scientific naming of them. So soon as his death became known in England, the British Museum offered to purchase the collection through Dr Reichenbach of Hamburg; but the widow of Dr Sonder, aware of my scientific intimacy and almost uninterrupted professional correspondence for nearly 40 years with her husband, declined any offer, until she had heard from me.

Dr Sonder, who has no son to continue his studies, was for years anxious himself, that the collections should pass into my hands, and in our correspondence he expressed himself satisfied to accept for the whole £900, altho' they are worth a great deal more in money; but their scientific value is simple

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Error for simply?

incalculable. If therefore this vast collection could be added to that formed by me during the last 42 years, we would have botanical treasures, with which only great State Institutions in Berlin, Petersburg, Paris, Leyden and Florence could compare, and it would be a credit to the colony Victoria, to have secured such unique treasures.

I wish you distinctly to understand, honorable Sir, that I am under no obligation to the family of Dr Sonder, and that I myself in the probably short remaining portion of my life cannot derive any very extensive benefit from these collections any more, altho' could I have acquired them 25 years ago or even 15 or 10 years ago, they would have very largely facilitated my studies. May I therefore ask you, to speak kindly on this subject to the hon. Sir Bryan O'Loughlen, the Premier, and the hon. J. M. Grant, the Chief Secretary, so that I may write a definite answer on this subject by one of the next mails.

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Smith evidently requested clarification, provided in M to L. Smith, 16 February 1882, and Short (1990).