To John Baker   15 August 1881

15/8/81.

Private

Allow me, dear Mr Baker, to consult you on the enclosed fern, which I recently received from North Queensland. I assume, that it is merely a form of that, which Mr Bailey in his "fern-world of Australia" described as A.¹ neglectum, and which Mr J. Smith from Hill's collection regarded as a var. of A. repandum.² Unfortunately I have no rhizome, and more unfortunate still I have no specimen at all of A. neglectum for accurate comparison, having forwarded my only sample to Kew, and having mislaid the description, which you kindly wrote for it, in which Mr Bailey anticipated us. That I often now look in vain for a plant, or document or anything else pertaining to my work, and thus loose no end of time, will easily be understood by you, when you know, that I had to shift my poor office accommodation three times in a few years, first from under the roofs of a small Hotel³ to a rented building⁴ and latterly to a small private cottage,⁵ in which I have not half the space, which I enjoyed for my Office-work in the bot. Garden, in the building which in the course of 17 years was erected for me, and which I had specially fitted for my work, not to speak of the laboratory and the 4 additional rooms to that, since also taken from me,where I also could conveniently dry plants.

Why do I mention this? I find, dear Mr Baker, that men of science in England cannot realize my difficulties here since I was so cruelly deprived of my Garden and therewith of all other facilities for my work in any direction. It seems my Salary is always counted up; well, it is fair, not much after all for a professional University man without any other source of income; but in Europe it is not considered, so I find, that in an expensive Gold country we pay away as quickly a £ as you in England a crownpiece. Even Mr Carpenter, an excellent young fellow, the son of the celebrated physiologist,⁶ when here does not seem to have realized my real position, so at all events I am led to believe from a letter after his return.⁷ If Office-rent, for several years at the rate of £120 per annum, and the pay of one Assistant and no end of other expense is to come out of a Salary, you can readily understand that there is not much left even for charities at the end of the year. I had however some better vote for contingences (after I left the Garden only £300 per anno) latterly, so that the here expensive lithographic work for the Euc. Atlas,⁸ for the wood-cuts for the School flora⁹ &c could be done at last. The Chemical book¹⁰ cost me alone £250 out of my private purse to be printed, with but little sale and little public aknowledgement afterwards.

But to return to our fern; should you find specific-differences (which I doubt), to entitle it to a distinct position, then please — give it a name under our united authority.

Would it not be well to issue now a separate supplement to the synopsis,¹¹as hardly any of us could purchase edition after edition; the older issues then would be as good to us as the new ones.

Regardfully your

Ferd von Mueller.

Acrostichum neglectum

Acrostichum repandum