From Ferdinand von Mueller to Graham Berry   5 Oct 1883

Melbourne,

5. Oct.1883.

The honorable Graham Berry, M.L.A.,

Chief Secretary.

Sir.

I have the honor to inform you, that gradually as a bye-work in my establishment 80 Quarto drawings have been prepared, illustrative of the almost exclusively Australian and also largely Victorian Order of myoporinous plants. As the issue of these plates through lithography and with descriptive text would be a very original contribution to botanic literature, I am very anxious to get your permission for this publication.¹

Should this meet with your favorable consideration, I would venture to point out, that the work would be a volume, collateral to that of the Eucalyptus Atlas; but to expedite its appearance it would be needful, to have some special monetary aid for the lithographic portion of the work. Each plate, to be well lithographed, would cost at the lowest £2.10-. Therefore £200 would be needed for the whole 80 plates. The lithographic paper can be furnished out of the ordinary departmental vote, and doubtless the printing and binding could be done in the Gov. Printing Office. Should you think, that it would be too much to ask for £200 as an extra on the additional estimates, then perhaps half that sum would be granted, so that the other half would need consideration next year.

Under the subsidy, now solicited, the whole volume could appear in 1884; whereas with the ordinary means of the establishment its appearance would probably be retarded for some years.²

I have the honor to be,

Sir,

Your obedient servant

Ferd. von Mueller.