Document information

Physical location:

RBG Kew, Directors' letters, vol. LXXV, Australian and Pacific letters 1859-65, un-numbered letter after letter no. 6. 61.08.00b

Preferred Citation:

William Archer to Ferdinand von Mueller, 1861-08 [61.08.00b]. 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//letters/1860-9/1861/61-08-00b-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
MS annotation by J. Hooker: 'to Dr Mueller'. The 'proposed work by Bentham' was described in a letter from G. Bentham to W. Hooker of 6 May 1861 (in this edition as M61-05-06) that had been sent to the Australian colonies by W. Hooker and received there before 24 July (see H. Barkly to W. Hooker, 24 July 1861 (in this edition as M61-07-24)). When Archer wrote the present letter to M, he apparently did not know of M's decision to collaborate with Bentham (see M to W. Hooker, 23 July 1861), The letter is dated to August 1861 as the latest it is likely to have been written as Archer wound up his Secretaryship of the Royal Society of Tasmania, which he resigned in that month (see W. Archer to J. Hooker, 20 February 1862; RBG Kew, Kew Correspondence, Directors' Letters vol. 76, Australian and Pacific letters 1859-65, letter No. 2). The fragment now at Kew was probably one of the items that M enclosed with his letter to W. Hooker of 24 August 1861 (in this edition as 61-08-24a).
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2
An unknown amount of text missing.
to publish a part of the Papers & Proceedgs includg the papers read before the Socy & the Proceedings during my Secretaryship. I will not ask you now, therefore, for any paper, though we may be glad of your assistce on the next occasion of publicn. Excuse this hurrried note, & believe me, with best wishes & regards,
Yours very sincerely
W. Archer.
P.S. Do you approve of the proposed work by Bentham on the Flora of Australia?
3
i.e. Benthem (1863-78).
Sir Wm Hooker & Dr Hooker have written about it. I will do nothing that will interefere with your plans.
WA.
4
In his letter of 20 February 1862 to W. Hooker, Archer wrote:
I regretted very much, my dear Sir William, that I was unable to advance the object that Bentham had in view as regards the Flora of Australia generally. I found that, though I believe Bentham, or Dr Hooker, is the fittest man to work out the whole subject of Australian Botany, I could not bring myself to ignore Mueller on his own ground, — & as a brother Australian, — now that I am here. In London I could more easily take the proper view of the matter; but here — right or wrong — I must own & yield to my bias.
Archer had expressed similar views in a letter to J. Hooker, 21 September 1861 (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, Archives, Directors' Correspondence vol. 218, folio 33, pp. 3-4):
With reference to Bentham's proposed work on the Australian Flora nothing would please me more than have it undertaken by one so thoroughly competent to perfect it; but you will readily understand that my present position as resident of Australia, & correspondent of Mueller, makes it far from easy to reconcile him to the propriety  of my supporting a proposition which would deprive him of the gratification, & honor, of working out the Flora of his adopted country. — I feel bound to recognise his prior claims to consideration in this matter, and all the more, because I know that it is  of comparatively minor importance to Bentham, who has other opportunities of employing himself in botanical pursuits, and who has achieved  a reputation to which Mueller is only aspiring. — Mueller writes to me that he has made a proposition on the subject which I think is liberal, and considering his Australian reputation, modest. — I hope it may meet with acceptance.