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From Ferdinand von Mueller to James McCulloch   10 Oct 1864

Melbourne botanic Garden

10/10/64.

Sir

I have the honor of transmitting to you herewith a copy of the work on the Chatham-Island plant,1 the publication of which you kindly sanctioned. 522 copies being printed I solicit that you will be pleased to grant 30 copies to the Gentleman,2 who at an expense of nearly three hundred pounds Sterling furnished the material for this book as a donation to the Melbourne botanical Museum. I further seek your permission to distribute 80 copies of this work on behalf of the Government to scientific institutions in Victoria and abroad, as I am particularly desirous that the views I have in this work for the first time publicly deposited against a recent dangerous doctrine of naturalist,3 which if unrefuted by natural science is calculated to impair the faith of many in Christianity, should be widely diffused. I beg further to solicit that also 80 copies of a small work on Australian Mosses,4 to be issued within a few days may be granted for simultaneous distribution.

I have the honor to be,

Sir,

your most obedient servant

Ferd. Mueller

The honorable the Chief Secretary

&c &c &c5

1

B64.10.02.

2

William Travers.

3

Darwin (1859), a copy of which Darwin presented to M; see Lucas (2010a). For M's use of the Chatham Islands book, see Lucas (2010), pp. 108-15.

4

B64.10.03.

5

File notes reveal that M's requests were approved, and that the Government Printer was informed on 24 October 1864.

Please cite as “FVM-64-10-10,” 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 5 June 2025, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/64-10-10