[October 1883]1
You will likely receive from here a catalogue of the plants of the bot. Garden. This production is sure to be without a spark of originality, and it is not likely ever to come before me. In seeing it, do remember, that the plants catalogued are nearly all got together by me, and that the names were in the course of years either determined or confirmed by me also. Large numbers of plants, existing at my time, were however be2 lost.
With Sir Will. and Sir Jos. Hooker I have always considered such catalogues to a large extent mere vaste3 of expenditure. Very few people will or can use them, as the 3000 large Iron-labels, left by me, afford all the information sought by ordinary visitors.
Moreover such catalogues become incomplete at once by new accesses, or incorrect by frequent losses. For these reasons Kew very wisely husbanded its resources and never furnished a catalogue since the second edition of the Hort. Kew.4 Catalogues in this expensive shape serve also but little interchanges, in as much as only of a limited portion of the plants any seeds or living plants would at any time be available
What I suggested to Sir Will and Sir Joseph repeatedly was, that by united efforts we should annually furnish a complete catalogue of garden plants, which every bot. Garden could use, and which would serve horticulturist[s] all alike, as the annual nautical almanach serves all Navigators. As regards the Melbourne catalogue, I suppose, where the plants came from will be suppressed, as usual reminding of the German proverb: "Es ist leicht aus anderer Leute Leder Riemen zu schneiden,"5 the truth of which I have to my loss experienced often in life!
A universal annual catalogue would be very different to Mr Jacksons nomenclator6
Please cite as “FVM-83-10-00b,” 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 20 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/83-10-00b