Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne bot Garden

26/6/63

Dear Sir William.

I need not say, how profoundly sorry we all here are to loose our excellent Governor, though Sir Henrys ordinary tenure of Office has expired. As soon as we learnt, that his Excellency acced[e]s to the Governorship of Mauritius I pointed out, how valuable his patronage would be, if he would undertake the direction of the labours of botanical collector in Madagascar, where by the more peaceable inclinations of the present ruler under proper gubernatorial influence a botanical traveller might penetrate into the ranges of the interior. His Excellency with his usual urbanity & readiness to promote scientific objects desired me to communicate at once with you, as we think one of your ordinary collectors might be disponible for the purpose of going to Madagascar. It would certainly the most cautious way to communicate first to his Excellency to Mauritius, who mean while would ascertain the whole of the facilities which he could offer for the collectors work. In the same degree as the traveller will penetrate into the interior ranges and towards the sources of the rivers, the harvest of endemic forms will become richer and richer.

1

C. J. Meller, who collected for Kew in Southern Africa, Madagascar and Mauritius was appointed as Superintendent of the Botanic Gardens in Mauritius (Pamplemousses) in mid-1866.

I have further to mention to you, that the Governor on my asking expressed a willingness to join the Royal Society, and I beg therefore of you to be kindly one of his Excellency's sponsors for the candidature. As you are one of the few, who fully can appreciate Sir Henry's worth as a cultivator and patron of science, I am persuaded you will render by your kind cooperation with Sir Roderick Murchison and General Sabine the Governors election as dignified as possible.

2

Barkly’s election certificate (Royal Society archives, EC/1864/02), read to the Royal Society on 26 November 1863 (balloted and elected on 2 June 1864), was signed ‘from personal knowledge’ by Roderick Murchison, W. J. Hooker, W. H. Hall, John Edward Gray, James Heywood, E. W. Brayley, Rowland Hill, W. H. Sykes and C. Babbage [Babbage’s name is not listed in the list of candidates printed in April 1864], and from ‘general knowledge’ by J. F. W. Herschel, G. B. Airy, Rosse [William Parsons, 3rd Earl of Rosse], T..R. Robinson, George Bentham, Andw.C. Ramsay, T. H. Huxley, B. Stewart and Rob. FitzRoy. Barkly’s ‘qualifications’ are given as 'Eminently distinguished for his enlightened encouragement of Researches which have advanced the Sciences of Astronomy, Botany, Geology, and Geography; by his strenuous exertions to obtain the great Telescope of the Melbourne Observatory; by his judicious patronage and encouragement of geographical and botanical explorations in the interior of Australia; by the lively interest he has taken in the Geological Survey of Victoria; and by his able development of the progress of Science in that Colony in his Anniversary Addresses as President of the Royal Society of Victoria'.