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84.06.00a

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to [Wilhelm Bäuerlen], 1884-06 [84.06.00a]. 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/1880-9/1884/84-06-00a-final.odt>, accessed June 10, 2026

1
Letter not found The text given here is from the Manaro mercury, and Cooma and Bombala advertiser, 7 June 1884, p. 3 (B84.06.01). It is introduced by
Baron von Mueller, the Government Botanist of Victoria, requests teachers and all other ladies and gentlemen who have time to devote to seeking for plants and flowers indigenous to the district of Manaro to forward him specimens, which can be dried and sent to him by post when practicable. That gentleman paid a visit to Manaro at the end of 1854 and beginning of 1855. In a private letter to a friend, Baron von Mueller, speaking of Manaro, says
The letter is dated to June 1884 as the last date that it could have been written; M's 'friend' was probably Wilhelm Bäuerlen; see W. Bäuerlen to M, 10 March 1890 and 21 March 1890.
The item concluded 'We hope these remarks will enlist the aid of some of our readers. Plants, which can be sent to Baron von Mueller, Melbourne, will be named after the discoverers, and information given as to the species.'
[S]o much needs yet to be done there in botanizing. In a place or district like yours, where there are so few social attractions (or rather I should say amusements), many an intelligent settler will have more leisure than those who are settled in large centres of population. So one of the purest pleasures might be enjoyed in a district so rich and peculiar in its vegetation, by the search after plants, if even ever so small, they all heralding divine wisdom. Mosses and lichens in fruit might even be collected in the winter season.