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RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1882-90, ff. 304-8. 90.02.19

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Thiselton-Dyer, 1890-02-19. 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/90-02-19>, accessed September 11, 2025

1
M has numbered some pages of the letter; these numbers are not given here.
19/2/90
Private
Let me say, dear Mr Dyer, in reply to your last letter,
2
in reply … letter in central margin of f. 304, front. Letter not found.
that Mr Bailey is nearly as old as I am. I knew him as an apprentice in his fathers nursery 1847 in Adelaide, but from 1847 til 1852, when I left, he never came to me for any information, as Stuart
3
Charles Stuart.
and others did.
In New Zealand, where for a dozen years the field was open for him, he did nothing for Botany, he still carrying on gardening there Late in life he commenced at Brisbane, a rich field for Cryptogams also, S. Queensland is.
I have spent on him for the last 12 years far more time for initiating him through correspondence into the Austral Flora (his name only being quoted in the 7th vol. of Bentham
4
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 7.
), than the loss to my own labor would balance, and now after so much attention shown in hundreds of letters him,
5
letters last word on p. 2 (f. 304, back), him first word on p. 3 (f. 304, front, left page).
he will not cooperate, but I shall only spend my time to help him or to confirm his own determinations. He sent more dried plants to an unscientific adversary of mine here, who sets on public expense up a rival herbarium collection,
6
Presumably William Guilfoyle, who had a small herbarium in the Melbourne Botanic Garden.
than I ever got after all my trouble from Bailey. So he uses the knowledge instilled, against me! He has only colonial ordinary school-education; otherwise he would have been able, to read RBr.'s prodr. & not attack even in print the Flor. Tasm. & Flor. Austr. about
Monotoca lineata

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, on what was settled 1810 by RBr.,
7
on what … RBr in left hand margin of f. 305, back, with intended position indicated by asterisk.
what he took for it in N. Queensland being probably a common
Acrotriche

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.
8
Bailey (1889), pp. 47-8, commented on J. Hooker (1860), vol. 1, p. 250; Bentham (1863-78), vol. 4, p. 230; R. Brown (1810), p. 547. See M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 1 December 1889; also M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 25 August 1890 (in this edition as 90-08-25a).
It is not so very long ago, that I saw a specimen glued down and named by him
Kochia brevifolia

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which was the ordinary state of
Salsola kali

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. I have spent even more time on him through years than on the Rev. Dr. Woolls, but their gratitude stands in relation of moon to sun! You must be therefore quite misinformed, when you urge me to take an interest in him. To a large extent he is my disciple, but I see no piety shown me in the manner, which I could expect towards a preceptor. Not long ago he called Melbourne in a letter to me
9
Letter not found.
without the slightest provocation the "City of the Pines" ironically, because I planted so many. Of course he is ignorant of medical hygienics and of the antiseptic exhalations of Pines. He is discontent, that I did not adopt all his species in the new Census, but many of them, like lots of Fitzgerald's
10
R. D. Fitzgerald; for examples of M's judgment, see M to J. Hooker, 25 April 1888, and M to R. Tate, November 1882.
(likewise omitted) are quite untenable. His Bellenden Ker plants
11
Mt Bellenden Ker, Qld.
came too late for the new Census,
12
B89.13.12.
but will go into the next suppl
13
His Bellenden … suppl written in the left margin of f. 306 back, with intended position indicated by asterisk.
If I should suddenly die, my Assistant, Mr Luehmann , who worked under me for a series of years, will be my Successor , according to laws , a few years ago established here by Parliament. No Appointment can be made here of an outsider, so long as an Officer is in the Department, able to carry on the duties. Mr Luehmanns status of education also is much higher than B.'s.
The man, who in Australia can take a really high place in Botany is Prof Tate ; he also has an European foundation to his studies. Of course — as I am a public Officer — and like to live in peace, your will consider this a confidential communication.
Ever regardfully
your
Ferd. von Mueller
My works he uses daily, without much recognition.
He went only up to Mt Bellenden Ker, after I had shown the importance of that Mt (seen by me 1855) by sending Sayer.
14
See 'Mount Bellenden-Ker', Gardeners' chronicle, 23 April 1887, p. 544 (B87.04.05). M would have seen the mountain on the voyage from Brisbane to the Victoria River at the beginning of the North Australia Exploring Expedition, 1855-6.
He is the only one of my numerous correspondents, with whom I have had unpleasantness.
I cannot always leave my own work to enlighten him especially when there is no gratitude.
The tone of Bailey's letters to me has often been very uncourteous
15
The postscript paragraphs above are marginal annotations on ff. 304-6, where there is also the struck-through passage 'His irritable temper let him even into dispute with his father in Adelaide. So I was told'. The remaining text is on ff. 307 and 308, included here as these are the next pages numbered in the sequence of M’s letters.
My action towards Kew through so many years m[igh]t
16
editorial addition — page is torn.
be a proof of my willingness to help, where I can, if I do not get discouraged. B.'s material is often so scanty, that it is a mere waste of time to work on it.
17
End of front of f. 307. The next sentence begins on the front of f. 308 but is placed here as it follows more closely from it than from the back of f. 307, which is transcribed below.
On one occasion (exempli causa) I gave him in manuscr. 42 names of plants, shown by me through a season to be new for Queensland . In very few instances he gave the source of information, then by me unpublished, in an early publication of his, for which I had purposely written out the msc, so that it appeared, that the knowledge had come through correspondents of his own, and my own trouble of getting the material and identifying from many correspondents of my own, was so far lost for my Department, the interests of which I am bound to watch .
18
Department … to watch in left margin of f. 308, back, with intended position indicated by asterisks.
19
Following paragraph on f. 307, back.
Best thanks for sending the publication on Sparrows .
20
Not identified.
I was from the very commencement totally against their introduction, and so also against that of Rabbits from early European Experiences of my own.
21
See M to J. Hooker, 18 May 1873, and M to R. von Fischer-Benzon, 16 December 1887. M's supposed role in promoting the importation of sparrows is described in Beauvoir (1870), p. 182: 'every morning he sets free hundreds of his subjects; they are common sparrows, which come to him from Germany in cages of three hundred, and every ship which anchors in Port Phillip brings him thousands of these little birds, which we detest in Europe, but which in Australia destroy swarms of noxious insects'.