Ferdinand von Mueller

Melbourne,

27/9/1879.

To W. H. Odgers Esqr.

Undersecretary.

Sir,

I have the honor to enquire, whether it would be possible under the audit act after the estimates of the Gov. Botanists Department for 1879-1880 have pased to utilize the item "towards the publication of an edition of the Flora Australiensis" (£125) for obtaining additional material for this important national work by the employment of a collector or the purchase of plants purposely collected, when simultaneously some novel articles might be secured as exemplifying new vegetable resources for the Melbourne international Exhibition of 1880.

1

International Exhibition, Melbourne, 1880.

If the present wording of the item above referred to precludes the possibility of utilizing the vote, would then perhaps the honorable the Chief Secretary allow the word "material" to be added to the phrase, when the sum passes in Committee of supply. I am so very eager to make the work as complete as possible and therefore employ the sum for the exploration of some phytographically unknown districts in the course of this financial year.

2

The whole amount was deleted from the Estimate that M submitted in M to G. Berry, 26 November 1879 (in this edition as 79-11-26a); M asked again in M to G. Berry, 24 January 1880. The sum reappeared in M's budget for the following year but still to support publication of Flora australiensis, not reallocated to support a collector as M had been requesting; see M to G. Berry, 28 September 1880 (in this edition as 80.09.28a). In the Estimate that M submitted two months later, he included it as 'Collector for Flora Australiensis', but the item was deleted; see M to G. Berry, 29 November 1880.