Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from ‘The Victorian exhibition at Centennial’, California farmer and journal of useful sciences, 2 September 1875, p. 12. The letter is dated to July as the latest that it could have been sent to have been reported in this issue of the newspaper.

[We are Indebted to Prof. Baron V on Meuller,

2

sic. M never held a teaching position and did not use the title ’Professor’.

the distinguished Botanist of the Royal Garden at Melbourne, Australia,

3

M had not been associated with the Botanic Garden since 30 June 1873, when the Directorship was removed from him. The Garden was not granted the epithet ‘Royal’ until 1958.

for advanced sheets of the valuable Work which he is preparing to accompany the Collection of Australian Plants, Products, and Manufactures which will be made to the Centennial next year, from Australia.

4

The Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia, 1876; B75.09.03. The Commissioners responsible for sending the Victorian exhibits awarded M a silver medal for his essay; see Commissioners for Victoria at the Philadelphia Exhibition (1875), p. xxx.

Professor Von Meuller has done so much to develop that great region, and made so great researches, that we feel confident the Exhibition from that region will be one of great value and of interest to science.

5

Although some of M’s works were included in the ‘Collection of books printed in Melbourne’ (Commissioners for Victoria at the Philadelphia Exhibition (1876), pp. 110-14), M did not have any natural history exhibits at the Exhibition in Philadelphia; for his acerbic comments about the numerous items exhibited by William Guilfoyle, see M to A. Gray, 25 December 1875.

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