Document information

Physical location:

RB MSS 439c, Library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne. 70.09.29

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to William Guilfoyle, 1870-09-29. 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/1870-9/1870/70-09-29-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

Private .
1
MS also marked 'Private' on last page.
Bot Garden
29/9/70
In last weeks "Leader", dear Mr Guilfoyle the enclosed article appeared.
2
'The Sydney intercolonial exhibition', Leader (Melbourne), 24 September 1870, pp. 7-8. The article is a letter to the editor by Josiah Mitchell. It is a gereral survey of the exhibition, in the course of which he compares the exhibits by Sir William Macarthur of Camden Park, NSW and Walter Hill, Brisbane botanic gardens, with M's. Of Hill's he wrote:
Mr. Walter Hill's collection of Queensland products also exhibited a vast amount of practical skill, combined with intelligent forethought for the future prosperity of that colony. The Queensland people may reckon themselves fortunate in the possession of such a man; he is, without doubt, "the right man in the right place". His collection comprised the coffee plant, in full bearing, tea, cotton, tobacco, and allspice plants. Also a large number of beautiful and delicate variegated foliaged plants … all in surprising condition considering the distance they had been brought. Indeed they might only have come from the nearest garden so well did they all look. In addition to useful and fancy timbers here we have fibres — not coiled up in small bottles as our Victorian fibres are — but hanging in large practical looking masses on the wall, alongside of specimens of the plants from which the fibre is obtained.
He went on to list in detail the other species exhibited, before concluding that account with:
Nearly the whole of these vegetable products have been introduced to Queensland by Mr. Hill during the past fifteen years, and they serve to illustrate in the most forcible manner at once the capabilities of the colony and how much may be accomplished, with but a small money outlay, in adding to the productive resources of a new country by the right application of intelligence, practical skill and untiring industry. The Queensland people have more reason to be proud of plain Walter Hill, surrounded by such fruits of his zeal, than if he were bedecked with any number of medals and had a host of titles.
He continued:
With this conviction I was painfully impressed on seeing the collection of plants sent from our Botanic Garden; decidedly the shabbiest lot in the whole place, and, in the main, of interest only to the botanical student. Flaming yellow labels, setting forth in large black letters the titled name of the exhibitor, were plastered on each pot. The glaring advertisement attracted attention to what otherwise would have passed unnoticed, but the notice thus attracted was anything but gratifying to Victorian pride. It was decidedly unpleasant to be taken by the arm and led up in front of a pot containing a mere fragment of a plant (
Cephalotus follicularis

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), and asked, "is that what you call plant growing in Victoria?" I would have disavowed the whole lot, had it not been for the damning evidence of the yellow labels. On the other hand, one had to turn up the catalogue to find the names of Sir Wm. M'Arthur and W. Hill. Such is the difference between practical merit and scientific meretriciousness.
Do you think it just? I could have sent any amount of plants to the Sydney Exhibition, had I wished to clear out my conservatories or had I wished to compete . I merely sent a few plants, as I had neither means nor leisure to forward much, even if I wished to risk unique plants, such as
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&c &c. I merely sent a few things to show my sympathy for the cause and such as I thought would not likely be in N.S.W. or QL.
3
Qld. M exhibited in classes 373, 'Best collection of hardy and ornamental trees and shrubs, not necessarily in flower, and not more than half conifer (Nurserymen)'; 374, 'Best Collection of commercial and medicinal plants'; and 680, 'Chemical objects of scientific interest'. He also exhibited a very large collection of plants in the non-competitive horticultural section, as well as a collection of seeds of 328 species listed in the addendum of the catalogue (Intercolonial Exhibition (1870)). He was awarded a silver medal for his exhibit in Class 680 (see Agricultural Society of New South Wales to M, 30 September 1870), and a bronze medal for the collection of plants (see Agricultural Society of New South Wales to M, 30 September 1870 (in this edition as 70-09-30a)). Mitchell did not mention these awards, even though a report about the silver medal appeared in the same edition of the Leader as his article (p. 13).
What use would it have been to send my magnificent Aroids, of which I have a large collection for competition? It is moreover far easier to send from Brisbane than from Melbourne any plants. Several of the plants sent by Mr Hill were first brought to Queensland by me.
The Leader since many years has done everything to ruin my position; and if any one thought the remarks required contradiction & pointed to my
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s,
Encephalartos

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Aloe

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s,
Euphorbia

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s &c &c, it would be useless I believe to send a reply to the Leader, where I feel convinced it would receive no admission unless changes there brought alterations toward me about. Yet in the Sydney press something might be done for me perhaps
I leave the matter in your hands
4
See also M to W. Guilfoyle, 15 October 1870.
With best regard
Ferd von Mueller
The innocent little
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I merely forwarded to fil up a vacant spot
The labels I put merely on the pots to prevent confusion.