Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. For the text given here see the proceedings of the meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania held on 19 August 1889, Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1889 (1890), p. xvii.

August 1889

[The Secretary (Mr. Alex. Morton) stated that since the last meeting,

2

9 July 1889. Letters by S. B. Emmett and by C. B. Barkley on the subject were read at the July meeting. See Papers and proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania for 1889 (1890), pp. xviii-xiv. A memorandum from T. Stephens was read at the August meeting, (pp. xvii-xviii)

at which the question of the height of some of the tallest Tasmanian trees had been discussed, he had been making inquiries by circular on the subject and had received some replies of value thereon. He intended to have a paper on this subject at a future meeting of the Society. Baron Von Müeller had written on this subject asking him to mention at this meeting that he (Baron Von Mueller) had never made himself responsible for measurements of 400ft. in height of any eucalyptus trees, and that in nearly all his writings on this subject he gave the names of those on whose statements he had relied too hastily in reference to exaggerated data concerning the supposed exceptional heights of certain eucalyptus. In the Argus of May 25 last he had set forth some of the best information obtainable, and urged new measurements of trees in Tasmania and West Australia.

3

B89.05.01.

It would be pleasing if the Tasmanian members of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science, who will attend the Melbourne meeting to be held in the early part of next year, could furnish for the biological section genuine measurements of Tasmania's tallest trees, or trustworthly records of past discoveries in this direction. He further suggested that an officer from the Survey Department should visit the group discovered by Mr. C. Barkley at Mount Barrow to obtain reliable data on the height of these trees.]

4

The following sentence is from the report of this meeting in Tasmanian news (Hobart), 20 August 1889, p. 2.

[He considered it would also be an important item of information for the Supplemental Decade of the Eucalyptography, which he trusted to bring out at an early date.

5

No further part of the Eucalyptographia after Decade 10 (B84.13.19) was published.

]