Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is the dedication in Woolls (1867), pp. v-vi.

To

FERDINAND MUELLER, Ph.D., M.D., F.R.S.. &c., &c., &c.

Government Botanist for the Colony of Victoria.

My dear Sir,

In presenting to the public my humble contribution to the Flora of Australia, I feel deeply indebted to your kind consideration for permitting me to dedicate the volume to you; and more especially do I appreciate the association of your name with my occasional papers, inasmuch as most of them have been perused by you, and received your favourable notice. But independently of the friendly sentiments you have manifested towards me, and the invaluable assistance I have received from your correspondence for the last eleven years, there are other considerations which induce me to bring your name prominently forward on the present occasion.

Since the days of the illustrious Robert Brown, no botanist has devoted himself more assiduously to the elucidation of Australian Botany than yourself, and certainly none has more richly merited the title "Prince of Australian Botanists," bestowed upon you by the eminent author of Species Filicum.

2

Quoted from W. Hooker (1846-64), vol. 5, under the entry for Gymnogramme Muelleri, p. 144.

When I contemplate the extensive information, profound research, and philosophical discrimination, displayed in the voluminous works published by you, by which you have gained an imperishable reputation, and contributed materially to the advancement of science throughout the civilized world, I may well feel honoured by the friendship of such a man as yourself, and pray that you may long continue to adorn these colonies.

Should it please Divine Providence to spare a life devoted to the calm and unobtrusive pursuits of science and the development of the vegetable productions of this vast continent, you will render incalculable service, not merely to Victoria, but to the whole of the Australian colonies, and future generations will contemplate with wonder the indefatigable labour and untiring zeal of one so highly favoured. If, however, like a distinguished historian who was struck down in the midst of his literary labours,

3

Possibly Thomas Buckle (1821-1862)? The first two volumes of his History of civilization in England (1857, 1861) were to be part of a far larger work, which his death left incomplete.

your sun should set, ere the great works designed by you shall have been fully accomplished, it may truly be said of you as it was of a renowned general of antiquity: "Et ipse quidem quamquam medio in spatio integrae aetatis ereptus, quantum ad gloriam, longissimum oevum peregit."

4

Tacitus, Agricola 44. 'Though he was snatched away in the vigour of life, yet if we consider the space his glory filled in the eyes of mankind, he may be said to have died full of years' (translation from Ramage (1864), p. 398)

Parramatta,

December 1867.