The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Private ¶ 20/3/82 ¶ ¶ With this post I have received from Mr Mitten the names of some of your mosses and lichens from Dr Johannes Müller and send them for your Royal Society. You see that you can get...

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MS annotation by Tepper: 'Reply 26.3.22'. Letter not found.

Privat

20/3/82.

Mit dieser Post habe ich von Mr Mitten die Namen einiger Ihrer Moose erhalten Flechten von Dr Johannes Mueller und sende solche für Ihre R.S. Sie sehen, dass Sie ebenso gut die Namen der Cryptogamen durch mich als direct von Specialisten erlangen können. Ich möchte daher Sie bitten, auch in Zukunft an dem Princip festzuhalten nur durch mich zu senden, zumal da Sie erst durch mich in die Bahn des Planzensammelns gelenckt wurden.

Im Vertrauen gesprochen, Mr Bailey mit seinem Glaubensgenossen dem Rev. T. Woods hat mir, trotz dessen dass er ganz mein Schuler und erst vor 10 Jahren in QL ( nie in Südaustr u N. Seeland) Pflanzen zusammeln anfing, auf meine besondere Bitte, mir mancherlei Verdruss dadurch bereitet, dass Bailey sich, ohne dass ich es wusste an Speciellisten der Cryptogamen in Europa wandte, (wie es auch Schomburgk in Bezug auf Pilze that, nachdem ich auch Letztern zum Sammeln solcher aufforderte). Es ist nicht Eifersucht was mich wünschen lässt, dass Alles durch meine Hände gehe, sondern nur um zu vermeiden dass Verwirung steht. Durch Bail[e]y arbeiten andere Specialisten als die, mit welchen ich in Verbindung stehe, an Moosen, Flechten u Pilzen, u so weiss der Eine nie was der andere beschreibt.

Dazu noch der Ärger, dass B. es durch den Pater hinzustellen sucht, als ob ich die niedere Acotyledonen nur nachlässigt ; diese Anschuldigung ist 2x öffentlich gemacht, schadet mir in meiner amtlichen Stellung u ist unverdient. Im 11t. Band der Fragm. werde Sie über 3500 Cryptogamen verzeichnet finden (exclus. Filices) und zu diesen hat B nur wenige Hundert geliefert, obwohl er die Standorte vermehrt.

Er wohnt aber auch so nahe den sübtropischen Jungel Wäldern, dass er schneller 100 Arten von Cryptogamen als Sie ein Dutzend finden können, davon sagt natürlich erst neulich bei der Gelegenheit, wo Woods einfach von Hooker &c allgemeine Notizen über Lichens copirt für die Tasm R.S., nichts.

Halten Sie mich nicht engherzig, aber wenn man sich 10 Jahre Mühe giebt, B zu belehren, so will man auch nachher nicht opponirt oder gar beleidigt sein.

Ich stehe ja doch noch in Correspondenz mit B, u im Ganzen zeigt er sich freundlich.

Mit bestem Grusse

Ferd. von Mueller.

Fügen Sie auf beiliegenden Papier die Standorte nach Ihrer Nummern zu. Wir haben hier weder die Bibliotheken noch das Vergleichungs- Material für vascular Cryptogamen. Selbst Sir Jos. Hooker arbeitet seit vielen Jahren nicht mehr daran.

B. hätte es gelegentlich anerkennen können in seinen Abhandlungen dass ich überhaupt ihn erst in seine bot Bahn gelenkt u Tausende von Pflanzen Exemplaren für ihn benannten, denn das erniedrigt ihn ja nicht.

Private

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M marked 'Private' twice on this letter, the second time is not reproduced here.

20/3/82

With this post I have received from Mr Mitten the names of some of your mosses and lichens from Dr Johannes Müller and send them for your Royal Society. You see that you can get the names of cryptogams just as well through me as direct from specialists. I would therefore like to ask you also in future to keep to the principle of sending only through me, especially since you were first directed on to the path of plant collecting through me.

Confidentially, Mr Bailey with his co-religionist the Rev. T. Woods, although he is completely my student and only began to collect plants 10 years ago in Queensland ( never in South Australia and New Zealand) at my particular request, has made all kinds of troubles for me, by Bailey consulting specialists on cryptogams in Europe without my knowing (like Schomburgk also did in respect to fungi after I also asked the latter to collect them). It is not jealousy that makes me wish that all goes through my hands, but only to avoid confusion. Other specialists work on mosses, lichens and fungi through Bailey than those with whom I am in communication and so the one never knows what the other is describing.

In addition there is the annoyance that Bailey through the priest seeks to make out that I simply neglected the lower acotyledons; this accusation, made twice publicly,

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M was presumably offended by the comment in Woods (1880), p. 481 that there had been 'little or nothing known' of Australian fungi, lichens and mosses, and then praising Bailey's work in this area. The assertion was repeated in Woods & Bailey (1881), p. 51:

Whatever attention has been paid to the botany of Australia by such illustrious and eminent scientific men as Robt. Brown, Hooker, Bentham and Baron Mueller, we must admit that there are some departments of the science which have been comparatively neglected. These are notably the Mosses, Lichens, and Fungi.

injures me in my official position and is undeserved. In the 11th volume of the Fragmenta you will find over 3500 cryptogams recorded (exclusive of Filices) and of those Bailey has supplied only a few hundred , although he did increase the localities.

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See Tate (1881), p. 50, on the assertion by Woods and Bailey that the study of Australian mosses, lichens and fungi had been neglected:

The authors … must have been unaware of the long-continued and patient efforts made by Baron F. von Mueller to collect material for the purpose of systematic investigation of these orders, and of the fact that this very material was then in the hands of the most accomplished specialists for identification.

Tate then referred to the supplement to vol. 11 of M's Fragmenta (B80.11.10, B81.13.12).

However, he also lives so near the subtropical jungle forests that he can find 100 species of cryptogams more quickly than you can find a dozen, saying nothing naturally until recently when opportunity offered where Woods simply copied general notes about lichens from Hooker &c for the Tasmanian Royal Society.

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In his introduction to Bailey (1881b), p. 26, J. E. Tenison Woods had acknowledged M's prior collecting and enumerations citing M's 'Annual Report of the Botanical Garden of Melbourne for 1868', which is in error as B69.07.03 contains no such list; there is a list in B58.11.02, p. 12. Woods also referred to an 1856 list in 'Plantae Muellerianae', presumably Hampe (1856a), but was apparently unaware of Hampe (1852), also part of that series.

Do not regard me as petty, but when one gives oneself trouble for 10 years to instruct Bailey, one does not also want to be opposed or indeed insulted afterwards.

However, I am still in correspondence with Bailey and generally he appears friendly.

With best greetings

Ferd. von Mueller

Add the localities on the enclosed paper according to your numbers.

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Enclosure not found.

We have here neither the libraries nor the comparative material for vascular cryptogams. Even Sir Joseph Hooker has for many years no longer worked on them.

Bailey could have acknowledged occasionally in his papers that I generally first directed him on his botanical path and named thousands of plant specimens for him, since that certainly does not demean him.

The correspondence of

Ferdinand von Mueller

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