... urge inland and northern and far eastern settlers to induce the natives to bring, in baskets, specimens of all sorts of plants, to be dried at the stations and forwarded to me by post.1 The small expenditure required for barter articles I would gladly refund. The minutest annuals should not be overlooked on such occasions. Perhaps I may not live many years to carry on my investigations and I should like so much to give the finishing stroke for the elaboration of the rich and varied flora of Western Australia before I pass away.2
The newspaper has inserted here: 'The Baron adds:—'.
The West Australian added, 'There are already many ladies living in these far distant parts of the colony, bereft, to a great extent, of those intellectual resources to which many of them have been accustomed. And upon these ladies, in particular, we would impress the interest they might derive from actively aiding our great Australian botanist in his valuable scientific researches. Much has been done in this way by the ladies in our settled districts and a still larger field for similar work is opened for those who have followed husbands and brothers into the remote and less known portions of this vast territory.'
See also S. Brooks to M, 5 November 1883.
The text was republished in 'Australian Botany', Brisbane courier, 26 September 1883, p. 2 (B83.09.03), with an added comment that 'in a private letter from the Baron to a friend in Queensland he says:— "What applies to Western Australia, in this respect, holds good for the north and west of Queensland also."' The article then goes on to reproduce B81.09.03, the text of M to Australian newspapers, September 1881 (in this edition as 81-09-00f).
Letter not found. For the text given here, see 'Occassional notes', West Australian, 24 July 1883, p. 2 (B83.07.04).
The West Australian introduced M's letter saying, 'We have received a communication from Baron Sir Ferdinand v. Mueller asking us to appeal to our settlers in outlying districts to aid him in his botanical researches. We cannot do better than to make this appeal in the Baron's own words, in which he begs us to ...'.
Please cite as “FVM-83-07-00,” 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