Melbourne bot Garden
23/5/63
Sir Henry
Availing myself of your Excellency's permission I beg to transmit herewith some of the humble products of my literary efforts, which I venture to offer as a very small contribution towards the Royal Library.2 I should not have had the courage of laying these works before our future sovereign, had I not been encouraged in doing so by the graceful manner in which the illustrious parents of H.R.H. the Prince of Wales condescended to receive a small former volume, and had not the ever lamented Prince Albert been pleased to honor previously transmitted works of mine with so kind and favorable an opinion.3
In humblest regards
your Excellency's
servant
Ferd. Mueller
His Excellency
Sir Henry Barkly K.C.B.
&c &c &C
Governor of Victoria
Barkly noted in his despatch that the work for Prince Albert had been enclosed with despatch 27 of 25 February 1860. In that despatch Barkly described the enclosure as 'a Work descriptive of newly discovered Australian Plants, which has been printed at the public expense under his [M's] superintendence'. An annotation on the despatch identifies the work enclosed as Fragmenta phytographiae Australiae; although no volume or part number is given, it must have been vol. 1, the last part of which was published in late 1859. Barkly in his despatch states that four volumes were enclosed: one copy was retained in the Colonial Office and copies were sent by the Colonial Office to William Hooker at Kew, the British Museum, and a copy 'ornamentally bound, which he [M] hopes His Royal Highness Prince Albert will not disdain to place on his Bookshelves, as a recent Contribution to Botanical Science from a Fellow Countryman resident in this distant part of Her Majesty's Dominions'.
A letter of acknowledgment from Sir Charles Phipps, Treasurer and Private Scretary to Prince Albert, was received in the Colonial Office and a copy sent to Barkly on 13 July 1860 as part of Colonial Office despatch no. 45 with a request 'that you will cause a copy of this to be communicated to Dr Müeller’:
Buckingham Palace
21. June. 1860.
Sir.
I have had the honor to submit to His Royal Highness the Prince Consort your letter of the 29th Ulto enclosing a despatch from the Governor of Victoria together with a work by Dr Ferdinand Müller of that colony for His Royal Highness' acceptance, and I am commanded to request that you will cause to be conveyed to Dr Müller the expression of His Royal Highness' thanks to him for his book.
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your obedt servant
C B Phipps
Please cite as “FVM-63-05-23,” 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/63-05-23