Ferdinand von Mueller

1

For the text given here, see B76.05.04. A draft in M’s hand is at K76/3065, unit 876, VPRS 3991/P inward registered correspondence, VA 475 Chief Secretary's Department, Public Record Office, Victoria. M submitted this for approval on 29 March 1876; see M to W. Odgers, 29 March 1876 (in this edition as 76-03-29a). Differences in punctuation between the draft and the published version are not noted here; more significant changes are noted below.

For the completion of an universal work on Australian indigenous plants,

2

M’s draft included at this point, in parentheses, ‘on which mainly under the auspices of the Victorian Government the Undersigned has been engaged in this continent for more than 28 years ’.

it is desirable to obtain additional collections of plants in a pressed and dried state, particularly from districts far inland or recently settled.

3

On 10 April 1876, the Chief Secretary, John MacPherson, submitted a 'Schedule of Transfers submitted by the Chief Secretary to the Governor in Council for Approval' requesting a transfer of £50 from 'Publication of work on Australian plants' to 'Collecting botanical specimens, clerical assistance &c'. The reason given was 'Insufficiency of the vote'; the request was approved by the Governor in Council on the same day (K76/3574, unit 873, VPRS 3991/P, Public Record Office, Victoria).

It is an important aim by these means to trace out the exact geographic limits of the many thousand species which constitute the original vegetation of Australia, and in order also that all observations on their respective utilitarian value, whether for pastoral culture, medical, or industrial purposes, may become recognised and applicable to the widest extent. Moreover, it is necessary to study still further the degrees of variability, to which all kinds of plants are more or less subject, with a final view of circumscribing the exact characteristics of each species. It is to be impressed on those who may feel interested in the promotion of such researches, not to exclude from local collections any plants merely because they are

4

The draft has ‘appear’.

frequent or insignificant.

5

In the draft, the following appears in parentheses at this point but has then been crossed out: ‘for none of these objects of nature are called forth without a divine design for distinct purposes, which we may well endeavour to ascertain’.

The process of drying plants for permanent collections is simple and easy in the extreme. It needs hardly any explanation beyond perhaps the remark that the parcels of paper, containing any recently gathered plants, after a few hours pressure, should be divided into thin sets, and be spread out on a dry or warm place, to facilitate and to speed

6

The draft has ‘spread’.

the exsiccation, and to lessen also the requirement of shifting plants from paper which becomes moist, into dry paper. Small plants should be gathered with their roots, and all not merely in flower but in fruit also, as indeed from the latter generally the main characteristics are derived. Water-weeds, rushes, sedges, mosses, lichens, fungi (and on the sea coast also algae), even if ever so small, should not be passed in collecting. Transits are best effected early after the preparation of the specimens, in small parcels closely packed, by successive mails. Whoever wishes to become scientifically acquainted with the native plants of his vicinity, or of localities otherwise accessible to him, can obtain the specific names, if a duplicate set is retained, in which the specimens are numbered correspondingly to those of the transmitted set. An intimate knowledge of the indigenous vegetation, while it largely indicates climatic and geologic circumstances, tends also to afford an insight not only into the natural vegetative resources of any tract of a country, but also into much of the pastoral or cultural capabilities of the respective localities. Researches of these kinds become, furthermore, the sources of educational works, and unfold to well-trained and intelligent minds pure recreative and healthful pleasures inexpensively everywhere within reach.

Melbourne, April 1876.

7

The circular was read at a meeting of the Medical Society of Victoria on 3 May 1876. It was widely reprinted up until at least 1883 (B83.09.04), some reprintings resulting from a re-issue by M (B81.09.03) in September 1881 (in this edition as 81-09-00f); it was also paraphrased, for example in Rockhampton bulletin, 29 June 1876, p. 2.