Document information

Physical location:

K73/10574, unit 750, VPRS 44/P inward registered and unregistered correspondence, VA 538 Department of Crown Lands and Survey, Public Record Office, Victoria. 73.06.01

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to James Casey, 1873-06-01. 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/1870-9/1873/73-06-01-final.odt>, accessed June 15, 2026

Melbourne bot Garden,
1/6/73.
Sir
In compliance with the wish, expressed in your letter of the 6th May, I have endeavoured to provide a return of the plants left available in my nurseries for distribution; but I find that no sooner my return is commenced it becomes incomplete by the decrease of the plants through the sudden daily demand on my stock by the current requisitions.
Under these circumstances I would suggest respectfully, that all requisitions, which may yet come before you and of which you may approve, might obtain in a general way your sanction, in order that I may then exercise my professional knowledge and my Directorial discretion in allotting to each institution a fair share, so far as the supply admits of it, just as was the case during the sixteen previous seasons.
I have the honor to be,
Sir, your obedient servant
Ferd. von Mueller,
Direct. botan Garden.
The honorable the Minister of the Lands Department.
1
On 9 June 1873, the Secretary of Agriculture, A. Wallis, minuted: 'If the Govt Botanist's suggestion were adopted, it seems to me that the Honble The President would possess no more knowledge of the plants distributed from the Botanical Garden than heretofore'. The Assistant Commissioner of Crown Lands and Survey, C. Hodgkinson, added on 10 June: 'In the general departmental regulations which I have prepared, and which will be ready for submission to the Honorable the Minister at end of this week, are dispersed some regulations relative to distribution of plants from State nurseries'. Casey minuted on 11 June: 'Inform the Govt Botanist that I shall prescribe general rules for the distribution of plants &c that will apply alike to all State nurseries'. C. Hodgkinson to M, 14 June 1873 (in this edition as 73-06-14b) told M of Casey's response.
The regulations governing 'Distribution of plants from State Nurseries', dated 19 August 1873 were published in Victoria government gazette, 29 August 1873. They mostly concerned the Nursery at Macedon, but also stated that 'On or after 1st September next any further distribution of plants, cuttings, seeds or flowers from the Botanical Gardens, Melbourne, will be discontinued', thus removing the labour costs in raising seedlings for distribution from M's successor William Guilfoyle.