The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Memorandum concerning the sending of a gigantic Todea-fern to the horticultural Exhibition of St Petersburg. ¶ ¶ When it was decided by the Imperial Horticultural Society of St Petersburg, that an in...

Document information

Physical location:

P84/758, unit 22, VPRS 1163/P1 inward correspondence, VA 1123 Premier, Public Record Office, Victoria. 84.03.18b

Plant names

Todea
Search for Todea in

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Memorandum, 1884-03-18 [84.03.18b]. 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/84-03-18b>, accessed April 21, 2025

This letter was first registered as B84/3072 in the Chief Secretary's Department, then referred to the Premier.

Memorandum concerning the sending of a gigantic -fern to the horticultural Exhibition of St Petersburg.

When it was decided by the Imperial Horticultural Society of St Petersburg, that an international Exhibition was to be held for the promotion of Horticulture in that city, I was requested on his own spontaneous impulse by the Vice-President of the Society (of which since many years I am an honorary member) to participate in this cosmopolitan show as an exhibitor. Having been mainly instrumental in initiating through other European Exhibitions and botanic Gardens the since years extensive export of ferntrees on a mercantile scale from Victoria, I thought that if I brought a -fern of enormous size and more than a hundred years age before the horticultural world at such a splendid occasion, I would also open up a demand for these much rarer ferns, which admit of wide transits in a living state, and would thereby create or much enlarge a trade in s from Victoria; but if I had not been distinctly asked, I should not have exhibited on account of the expense involved. When I found, that the expenditure of conveying the monster-stem, which without fronds and without case weighed 4000 lb, from the Ranges to Melbourne and thence to London, amounted already to such a considerable sum, I had no courage to submit this account for the transit of the Giant- from London to St. Petersburg, but defrayed it myself, having on very many other occasions through many years borne similar expenses in the interest of the resources of Victoria and for the advancement of science. In exhibiting on this occasion as Gov. Botanist of Victoria it was done on behalf of the Colony, just as will be the case with other Gov. Botanists of other countries, for instance Sir Joseph Hooker, K.C.S.I., of Kew; and it has always hitherto been left to us here or elsewhere, to act at our discretion as professional Gentlemen in dealing departmentally with such really routine-matters.

Ferd. von Mueller

See also M to T. Wilson, 18 March 1884 (in this edition as 84-03-18a), and M to T. Wilson, 3 April 1884.

18/3/84.

In requesting the Imperial Councillor of State, Dr von Regel, Director of the botanic Garden of Petersburg, to accept the for his Establishment after the Exhibition, I felt justified to do so, as it would be a reciprocal gift for Herbarium-plants received from his Institution, including very numerous specimens from Amur, Turkestan and other places, among them a set of Dr Riedel's Brazilian plants. Should any prize be given by the jurors for the , I shall place it with the other medals of mine into the Melbourne public Library and Museum Collections.

The was awarded a Gold medal, the subsequent fate of which is not known; the accompanying certificate states that the award was to the 'Government of the Colony of Victoria': see notes to M to G. Berry, 2 July 1884.