Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. For the text given here, see: Argus, 9 February 1856, p. 6.

THE BOTANICAL GARDENS.

(To the Editor of the Argus.)

Sir, —

I should like to know whether the Botanical Gardens were established, and are kept up, to be useful in the education of the rising generation; or whether they are merely for a place of lounge for idle folk?

I am one of the idle folk who occasionally spend a pleasant hour there, but I always regret that it does not afford me one-tenth the information it might, and I seek. As a lover of botany and a collector I occasionally go there to name a plant new to me, and to my great annoyance I mostly find the names of the Victorian plants neglected, while the gardener's fanciful varieties of roses and pelargoniums are honored with tickets denoting them to be worthy of high names, as Lord, Lady, or Sir Somebody. Many of the introduced plants and trees are named, but seldom the habitat is mentioned. Among the Australian plants named are some few acacias, hakeas, Grevilleas, &c., but whether indigenous to Victoria your are left to guess.

I would advise the manager or managers to place a label with name (and author, of course, where known) and habitat at each plant, or paint the name on tablets of different colors, — say Victorian specimens all white tablets and black letters, and introduced specimens black tablets and white letters — so at once distinguishing the native plants, &c.

Till I see much more desire shown to make the gardens useful to the student and lover of botany, I shall not consider the "right man is in the right place" in the management.

Richmond, th

2

There is an empty space before 'th'.

February, 1856.