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71.12.00c

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Ferdinand von Mueller to Frederick Barlee, 1871-12 [71.12.00c]. 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/1870-9/1871/71-12-00c-final.odt>, accessed August 17, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The flora of Australia', Inquirer and commercial news, (Perth), 27 December 1871, p. 2 (B71.12.08). It is introduced by 'Baron Von Mueller, writing to Mr Barlee by the last Colonial Mail says:–'.
It is dated to early December, as the colonial mail was received in Perth on 20 December, having closed in Melbourne on 6 December (Inquirer and commercial news, (Perth), 20 December 1871, p. 3; Argus, 4 December 1871, p. 4).
In candour, I must confess that I feel somewhat disappointed with the scantiness of contributions of plants from your country, and with the paucity of amateur collectors. When I consider how, in many places, the most varied vegetation grows before the very doors of the homesteads, and how many intelligent persons, both ladies and gentlemen, are scattered over your large territory, I should have hoped for better things, as the collecting would cost actually nothing, and as the services are always acknowledged in my works. It might be well to keep the matter before the public in all districts; for they seem not to understand that I value anything in the form of dried plants, particularly as through the accumulation of large material from many localities, the natural range of the different species may be accurately determined. The best plan for any one to help me would be to send successively by the monthly mail small parcels. I am working on the sixth volume, or rather now the seventh volume, of the Flora of Australia,
2
The sixth volume of Bentham (1863-78) was published in 1873.
and find the West Australian material sadly incomplete. My department is not endowed to send a collector, and even he would require local help from amateurs simultaneously in each district. Could anything be done by a small premium to schools? I would be quite willing to pay for collections made at the different schools by the children at a moderate prize by way of premium or reward, at a rate fixed for each 100 different species properly dried. If duplicates were retained, I could furnish, for instruction's sake, the names; and the likelihood of sending the same plant over and over again would be avoided. Would your Government School Board or Education Board initiate this system of imparting knowledge? In such a case, what would be an adequate price or prize, and how would the parcels get to K. G. Sound? Would the post take them? Each specimen should have a piece. of paper with it on which the locality, date of collecting. and name of collector, should be noted.
3
The newspaper was 'willing to take charge and forward any specimens, packed in reasonably sized parcels' and announced that the Colonial Secretary 'will always be ready to frank such packages, as he considers it to the interest of the colony to have its plants as widely known and described as possible'.