Melbourne botanic Garden
29/4/63
Sir
I have the honor to inform you, that the printing of the first volume of the work,1 of which a title page is annexed, and for which you were pleased to grant a subsidy of £100 out of the vote for "publication of plants" in this establishment, will be completed in this or the next month, and that Mr President Bentham informs me, at least 20 copies of this volume would be gratuitously transmitted to the Victorian Government.
I have now the honor to direct your consideration to the circumstance, that the reduction of the vote for publishing plants from £320 of former years to £250 this year will render it impossible to effect the subsidy for the second volume (for which the material is now under preparation) out of this vote, unless the illustration of the works, now under progress here under the auspices of the Victorian Government are discontinued for the greater part of the current year.
Considering that the Governments of New South Wales, Queensland & South Australia have provided an annual grant for Mr Benthams work, of which a volume is to appear every year, and that furthermore the Governments of Tasmania and West Australia appear to have pledged themselfes to the purchase of a number of copies, I feel it would not be inappropriate to recommend to your favorable consideration, to provide a special sum annually of £100 on the estimates for this important publication and beg, if my suggestion is favored with your approval, to solicit, that the sum of £100 may be placed on the supplementary estimates of this year.
I have the honor to be,
Sir,
your most obedient and humble servant
Ferd. Mueller.
The honorable the Chief Secretary
&c & &2
FLORA AUSTRALIENSIS:
A DESCRIPTION
OF THE
PLANTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN TERRITORY.
BY
GEORGE BENTHAM, F.R.S., P.L.S.,
ASSISTED BY
FERDINAND MUELLER, M.D., F.R.S. & L.S.,
GOVERNMENT BOTANIST, MELBOURNE, VICTORIA.
VOL. I.
RANUNCULACEAE TO CONNARACEAE.
PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE SEVERAL GOVERNMENTS OF THE AUSTRALIAN COLONIES.
LONDON:
LOVELL REEVE AND CO., 5, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN.
1863.
Bentham (1863-78), vol. 1.
On 14 May 1863 the Under Secretary, J. Moore, forwarded M's letter to the Treasurer on the direction on the Chief Secretary. The Under Treasurer, E. Symonds returned it to Moore on 6 July annotating the explanation: 'the addl Ests in course of preparation having been withdrawn'.
Please cite as “FVM-63-04-29,” 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