The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: 13/4/80 ¶ ¶ You must have thought it very strange, dear Mr Shillinglaw, that I asked again for ¶ Labillardière's ¶ work, but really I had not the slightest recollection, that I asked before. ¶ It ...

Document information

Physical location:

Box 243/4, Shillinglaw papers, La Trobe Australian manuscripts collection, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne. 80.04.13

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to John Shillinglaw, 1880-04-13. 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/1880-9/1880/80-04-13-final.odt>, accessed June 9, 2026

13/4/80

You must have thought it very strange, dear Mr Shillinglaw, that I asked again for Labillardière's work, but really I had not the slightest recollection, that I asked before.

See M to J. Shillinglaw, 7 April 1880.

It is very kind of you & Mr Wadsworth, that you think so well of my "select plants",

B76.13.03.

and I am glad that it proved also practically useful to you.

What could I have done for the colony, had I been allowed to continue these researches in my garden and above all to give practical application to them! O my God!!

What a lustre could I have shed on the colony, and how celebrated could I have made my Department up to the day of my death. Even now, I cannot see, why not an honorable rearrangement should be made. The Indian Government has a new edition of the "select plants" in print,

B80.13.07.

to which I have made such additions, as the sadly oppressed state of my Department still allowed.

I wish you & your sons every luck on your island,

Shillinglaw's son, E. B. Shillinglaw, together with William Ison and his son Edward Ison, had applied for grants of land on the island of Cocoroc, at the mouth of the Little River between Melbourne and Geelong. Their application, which was opposed by the responsible local council, the Wyndham Shire Council, was granted by a local land board after a hearing in Geelong on 9 June 1880 (Geelong advertiser, 10 June 1880, p. 4). However, the decision was subsequently overturned when the Council appealed successfully against it (Geelong advertiser, 25 June 1880, p. 2). The reports make no mention of J. J. Shillinglaw being a party to the application.

and wish I had one myself.

How does your important work on Flinders proceed?

The biography of Matthew Flinders on which Shillinglaw was working was never published.

With friendship

your

Ferd. von Mueller.