Melbourne bot. & zool. Garden
21 Aug. 1858.
Sir
I have been desired by his Highness Prince Paul William, Duke of Wuertemberg,1 to solicit your Excellencys permission; that Professor M'Coy may be permitted, to furnish duplicate zoological specimens in exchange for such, as his Highness would be able to send next year from his magnificent private Museum in Silesia, whence he is returning after his visit to Moreton Bay & New Zealand.
Before leaving our shores finally, his Highness intends to wait on your Excellency. Meanwhile he requests me to express for him his greatest veneration to your Excellency; likewise he wishes me to give authentic information on His Highness social position, which has been somewhat misrepresented by the Colonial Press.
In answer to an enquiry of your Excellency, I beg leave to state, that my report on the Botany of North Australia is printed in the second volume of the proceedings of the Linnéan Society,2 the work itself being issued but not (as far as I know) received in the Colony.
Most humbly
Ferd. Mueller.
His Excellency Sir Henry Barkly, K.C.B.3
On 23 August 1858 Barkly asked: 'Will the Honble the Chief Secretary be good enough if he see no objection to complying with this request, to obtain Professor McCoy's report as to what Duplicate specimens he would be prepared to part with. Such exchanges are usual & it could be well to show as much liberality as possible to Foreign Travellers'. McCoy's report was duly obtained on 26 August: 'If Herzog Paul von Würtemberg will have the goodness to furnish [...] a general or particular List of the Victorian duplicates he desires — particularly mentioning if he wishes to have more than one of any species — all such as the Museum has duplicates of shall be packed without delay & the rest sent as they occur.'
See also J. Moore to M, 31 August 1858 for the same information.
Please cite as “FVM-58-08-21,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/58-08-21