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RBG Kew, Kew correspondence, Australia, Mueller, 1871-81, ff. 236-7. 79.07.06Preferred Citation:
Ferdinand von Mueller to Joseph Hooker, 1879-07-06. 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/1870-9/1879/79-07-06-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026
6/7/79.
By this post, dear Sir Joseph, I send you a few more plates of the Eucalyptography,
and I hope to submit to you soon the two or three first decades complete. Sad to record,
my poor draftsman Austin,
after a long and severe illness (nephritis) has died and this needs now the training
of another artist for the purpose.
1
That is, plates for B79.13.11.
2
Robert Austen.
Times are very bad here; there is a great deficit in the expected revenue and it is
therefore very doubtful, whether my labours even in their merely literary shape, will
continue supported to its small extent as before. The Ministry, now in power, seems
far more favorable to me than that of Mr Francis,
but there is no concealing of the fact (pointed out to you six years ago), that I
have
lost all hold on the country
since I had to surrender my bot Garden. As discarded Director, unjust & cruel as it
is, I must leave Victoria during our “Worlds exhibition” next year,
if indeed I should live so long, what in my continued grief seems very doubtful.
3
The government led by Graham Berry came to power in May 1877; James Francis was Chief
Secretary from June 1872 to July 1874, the Ministry that removed the the Directorship
of the Botanic Garden from M.
4
International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1880-1.
I had last afternoon in a country district to speak on Rust in support of a lecture
by Mr M’Ivor,
and I showed the audience the original plates of Puccinia graminis & Uredo Rubigo,
given by the sponsor of your baptism in 1806
(in Koenig's & Sim's Annales.)
This reminded me vividly of
you
, dear Sir Joseph, and let
me to contemplate, how gloriously your fathers friend, the Naturalist of Cooks first
expedition, through yourself and your youngest son, will connect the 18th with the
20th century!
5
R. W. E. MacIvor lectured on rust in wheat at a meeting of the West Bourke Agricultural
Society at Lancefield, Vic, on Saturday 5 July 1879. M was present and spoke in support
of MacIvor (Argus, 7 July 1879, p. 7, col. g).
6
Joseph Banks.
7
Banks (1805).
8
led?
That must be a triumph to you, far greater than any other!
I have found out, that your Euc. Gunnii does really embrace E. Stuartiana also, and
that thus it is not merely alpine but like E. pauciflora (E. coriacea A.C.) also a
tall timbertree in the lower regions.
9
In the fourth decade of
Eucalyptographia, probably being printed at the time of the letter, M retained the distinction between
E. gunnii
and
E. stuartiana. M does not appear to have published any note uniting the species; his later reference
to
E. gunnii
(B78.11.04, p. 38) makes no mention of the unification.
Let me remain,
dear Sir Joseph,
regardfully your
Ferd von Mueller
Many thanks for the seeds successively sent. This helps to keep the wreck of my Department
afloat. I trust you will be able to carry Prof. M'Coys election at the Royal Society
and perhaps you may have a chance to make Dr Rudall also a F.R.S; he was Surgeon also
of one of Ships in search or in support of the search after Sir John Franklin, rescuing
Belcher; this I forgot to mention.
Dr Curling FRS, is a particular friend of this really
splendid
Surgeon. He stands thus far [out] as ophthalmologist also at the head of our profession
here.
10
See M to J. Hooker, 8 June 1879 (in this edition as 79-06-08b).
Eucalyptus coriacea
Eucalyptus Gunnii
Eucalyptus pauciflora
Eucalyptus Stuartiana
Puccinia graminis
Uredo Rubigo