Melbourne botan. Gardens
July 9th 1863
Sir
I have the honor to inform you, that the elaboration of the second volume of the Universal work on Australian plants by G. Bentham Esq., the President of the Linnean Society of London has been commenced under my aid and that the first volume for which a subsidy of £100-. -. was granted by the Victorian Government has been issued in London and that a share of the copies for the Government may be expected to arrive within the next months. A subsidy of £100.- .- understood to be continued having been made towards the publication of the first Volume out of the Vote for publishing works on Australian plants, I would have recommended to Your favorable consideration, that a remittance for the second Volume might be effected out of the same vote, had not this item been reduced from £320.- .- to £250.- .-. Hence it would be necessary to discontinue for the remainder of the year the labors on illustrating the plants of Victoria by our local artist,1 if the second remittance had to be defrayed out of the reduced vote, and I ventured therefore to solicit from your honorable predecessor in a letter dated April 29th 1863,2 that a special provision might be granted on the supplementary estimates for the continuation of Mr Bentham's work, especially as the Governments of New South Wales, South Australia and Queensland have also given a generous support to Mr Benthams publication by a special grant for each volume.
Mr O'Shannassy3 and Mr Haines viewed my proposition most favorably and placed therefore the sum of £100-. -. on the Supplem. Estimates for this year. Now I would beg to solicit, that you will be pleased to confirm the favor of your honorable predecessor4 and I may be allowed to add, that neither President Bentham nor myself derive any monetary advantage whatsoever from this work, but that the subsidies from the Governments of the Australian Colonies have merely been sought to allow the London publisher to issue the volumes at so low a price, as to render the work accessible also to the unwealthy classes. In recommendation of the work, it may be sufficient to remark, that President Bentham the most illustrious of all living describing Botanists, wishes to crown labors, commenced before I was born, and extended now over more than 40 years, with the elucidation of the flora of this great continent, and that for this purpose not only the vast collections of Australian plants, in Great Britain, accumulated since Sir Jos. Banks's visit to the Australian shores in Cooks first voyage are consulted, but also that the apparently still larger collections, which are gathered and preserved in the scientific branch of this establishment will be fully consulted.
I have the honor to be
Sir
Your most obed. & humble servant
Ferd. Mueller
The honorable the Chief Secretary
&c &c &c
Frederick Schoenfeld.
M to J. O'Shanassy, 29 April 1863.
John O'Shanassy. The sum was placed on the additional estimates, but O'Shanassy's ministry was replaced by McCulloch's on 26 June, and those estimates were withdrawn.
In M to J. Moore, 18 July 1863 (in this edition as 63-07-18a), this sum was requested in response to a circular asking for items for the supplementary estimates. The addition of £100 to the vote for this head was approved by the Legislative Assembly on 12 August 1863 (Victoria, Votes and Proceedings of the Legislative Assembly, Session 1862-3, vol. 1, p. 355).
MS written by Ernst Heyne and signed by M.
Please cite as “FVM-63-07-09,” 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