Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The genus Acacia', Sydney mail and New South Wales a dvertiser , 4 February 1888, p. 237. It is introduced by ' Baron Mueller, in w riting to a friend in Sydney, says: '. M's correspondent is probably William Woolls, who was a regular contributor to the newspaper and was almost certainly the author of the reviews of B87.13.04 published in it on 26 November 1887, p. 1118, and 21 January 1888, p. 119.

The article concludes with a paraphrase of the remainder of M's letter and a comment:

The Baron expresses great regret at not having been able to take part in the Centennial festivities of last week. His medical advisers recommended him not to undertake the journey to Sydney and to risk the excitement of meeting so many scientific friends from the different colonies. Being a colonist of nearly 40 years standing, the baron takes a deep interest in the welfare of the Australian colonies, and it is to be hoped that he may be long spared to complete the important work in which he is now engaged for developing the natural history of this continent.

M's letter is dated to late January 1887 on the basis of the reference here to the week of celebrations held in Sydney to mark the centenary of the arrival of the First Fleet on 26 January 1788 (see Sydney morning herald , 31 January 1888, p. 5),

I wish you would kindly direct attention to the fact that any settl e rs residing far in the interior might render me great assistance in the prosecution of my work on the genus acacia by sending me fruiting specimens (that is, with pods accompanying the flower s ) of species but little known. It should be made public, that at the present time there ar e nearly 100 species of the genus whose pods remain to b e described. I hope, however, in course of time to bring up the publication to 13 decades, that is to give accurate figures of 130 species.

2

B88.13.01 comprised decades 9-13 of the Acacia Iconography, but decades 12 and 13 contained figures of nine species of Albizzia , and one species each of Adenanthera , Erythrophlaeum and Neptunia , so that plates of only 118 species Acacia were published.