Ferdinand von Mueller

17/12/95.

Private

My attention has been drawn to your announcement, dear Professor Spencer, in the Argus

1

Letter to the editor, Argus, 17 December 1895, p. 5, announcing that the report on the Horn Scientific Expedition to Central Australia (Spencer 1896) would be published jointly by Melbourne and London publishers, with most of the typesetting to be done in Melbourne.

of this morning, that the scientific reports (zoolog. and geolog.) have mostly passed here through the Press (concerning the Horn Expedition) under your able Editorship. The plants, being nearly all known to Prof. Tate, are therefore with few exceptions determined by him from former knowledge.

2

Tate (1896), p. 137, acknowledged M's 'assistance in the determination of a few critical species as well as for certain notes which are incorporated in the following enumeration of plants'. The enumeration is at pp. 137-86; for an example of the comments supplied by M, see under Cyperus umbellatus, p. 181. New taxa include the genus Elacholoma and E. horni, jointly authored by Tate and M, p. 190.

Now I would like to ask, whether the botanic Report will also be printed here , and whether it will be early enough, if I devote the Christmas- and New years holidays (not either free from office-duties, which necessarily are daily) to the critical examination of the about half a dozen species yet to be examined here. Several others I have done for Prof Tate from the Horn-Expedition long ago. I am amidst the annual Examinations, which as an honorary Officer I carry out for the Education-Department and some other Gov. Institutions,

3

See M to W. Thiselton-Dyer, 1 January 1895, where M, while explaining how busy he was, wrote: 'I conduct also extensive annual examinations of Students as an honorary work, e.g. Veterinary College, Horticultural College, Working Mens College, Education-Department &c.'.

and would like to finish this extensive extra-work before Christmas. I could then finish off for the Horn-Expedition during the Holiday.

4

Tate's report had already been submitted; see M to W. B. Spencer, 19 December 1895.

Could you make an evening hour in the latter part of the week free for me at my own dwelling, as I wish to consult you about any possible support your institution could give to a collector of mine

5

W. V. Fitzgerald is the main collector of British New Guinea specimens in MEL from 1895 (AVH, accessed 26 June 2022); he was on the staff of Governor William MacGregor at the time. There are few specimens collected in 1896, all but two by Amadeo Giulianetti, appointed by the Governor as 'Travelling Government Agent'. It is not known whether either or both collectors also received payment from M, either per specimen or as a general subsidy.

for further travels of his in New Guinea, from whence, especially the highlands you might thus perhaps obtain zoologic material for you own studies. I shall write to Prof Tate within the next days. The issue of the 9th (enlarged) edition of the "Select Plants"

6

B95.08.04

encroached enormously extra on my always already heavily taxed time during 1895.