From Ferdinand von Mueller 16 June 1874
Melbourne,
16/6/74.
When lately issuing a supplement to my “timber-trees” and “other industrial plants”, dear Mr Darwin, I came across the Ribes Magellanicum and remained doubtful, whether it ought to be included in my “additions”.1 Will you kindly inform me, whether it is a species deserving cultivation.2 I wish to prepare a second supplement, and perhaps you may remember other plants of utilitarian importance yet to be cultivated, without taxing your precious time.—3
As I have occasion to write to you I cannot refrain from remarking, that Mr Edw Wilson, Mr. McKinnon & Mr Spowers must not be aware of the ruin of my Department, mainly due to the cruel and unjust persecution of their two papers after their departure for England.4 I cannot think that they would have allowed me thus to be ruined, had they not been misled concerning the changes made in my position.5
All that is left me for working my whole Department with all its responsible daily multifarious duties is £300, which would not even suffice to rent the buildings required for the service in this expensive country, only one room (without fire place) and overcrowed with collections being left me! Altho’ I have spent again my whole modest salary to carry on some part of the service through this year, I was unable to maintain the field branch, nor the laboratory branch, nor the greater part of the required interchanges, nor the lithographic work. Indeed the Observatory receives 10 times as much for working expenses than my Department, not to speak of buildings provided.6 Last week a commencement was made to break even down my laboratory. Imagine Dr. Hooker as Gov. Botanist of England out of Kew and performing the duties out of his salary, leaving his family & old age unprovided.7 What a poor triumph of the proprietors of the Argus, who are well aware that with the scanty means granted noone could have done more for the bot Garden than I did.
Yrs faithfully | Ferd. von Mueller
It is strange, that not one of all the men of science of England has taken the slightest notice of my having left no me⟨a⟩ns beyond £300 to work the important duties of my Department.8
Footnotes
Bibliography
Aust. dict. biog.: Australian dictionary of biography. Edited by Douglas Pike et al. 14 vols. [Melbourne]: Melbourne University Press. London and New York: Cambridge University Press. 1966–96.
Correspondence: The correspondence of Charles Darwin. Edited by Frederick Burkhardt et al. 29 vols to date. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1985–.
Drayton, Richard. 2000. Nature’s government: science, imperial Britain, and the ‘improvement’ of the world. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.
Endersby, Jim. 2008. Imperial nature: Joseph Hooker and the practices of Victorian science. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press.
Mueller, Ferdinand von. 1871. The principal timber trees readily eligible for Victorian industrial culture, with indications of their native countries and some of their technologic uses. Report of the Acclimatisation Society of Victoria (1871): 29–58.
Mueller, Ferdinand von. 1872. Select plants (exclusive of timber trees) readily eligible for Victorian industrial culture, with indications of their native countries and some of their uses. Proceedings of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria 1: 249–422.
Mueller, Ferdinand von. 1874. Additions to the lists of the principal timber trees and other select plants, readily eligible for Victorian industrial culture. Melbourne: Stillwell.
Mueller, Ferdinand von. 1875. Second supplement to the select plants, readily eligible for Victorian industrial culture. Proceedings of the Zoological and Acclimatisation Society of Victoria 4: 45–56.
Porter, Duncan M. 1999. Charles Darwin’s Chilean plant collections. Revista Chilena de Historia Natural 72: 181–200.
Powell, J. M. 1977. Exiled from the garden: von Mueller’s correspondence with Kew, 1871–81. Victorian Historical Journal 48: 312–20.
Summary
Wants information from CD for a revision of the supplement of his work on timber trees and other industrial plants [Proc. Zool. & Acclim. Soc. Victoria 3 (1874): 47–95].
Reports the ruin of his department thanks to two papers by Edward Wilson, McKinnon, and Sparrow.
Letter details
- Letter no.
- DCP-LETT-9494
- From
- Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich (Ferdinand) von Mueller
- To
- Charles Robert Darwin
- Sent from
- Melbourne, Victoria
- Source of text
- DAR 171: 283
- Physical description
- ALS 4pp
Please cite as
Darwin Correspondence Project, “Letter no. 9494,” accessed on 20 April 2024, https://www.darwinproject.ac.uk/letter/?docId=letters/DCP-LETT-9494.xml
Also published in The Correspondence of Charles Darwin, vol. 22
