Melbourne,
11 Sept.1884.
The honorable Graham Berry, M.L.A.,
Chief Secretary.
Sir.
I have the honor to inform you, that several Gentlemen, notably the hon. Dr. Dobson and other members of the Field Naturalist Club, have urged lately very much that a "Key to the knowledge of the Native plants of Victoria" should be published,1 to facilitate botanic researches in the field. As such a book could be brought within about 200 small octavo pages and could readily be elaborated by me in the course of some months, I would beg to solicit, that authority be given for the issue of this little work in the Gov. Printing Office.2
I have the honor to be,
Sir, your obedient servant
Ferd. von Mueller.
See S. Dobson to J. Service, 12 September 1884 (in this edition as M84-09-12), S. Dobson to J. Service, 20 September 1884 (in this edition as M84-09-20), and S. Dobson to G. Berry, 20 September 1884 (in this edition as M84-09-20a).
Berry approved the proposal on 16 September, news of which M acknowledged 'with best thanks' on 20 September; however, Dobson was evidently not informed of the decision immediately. The Under Secretary, T. Wilson, forwarded the file to the Government Printer and to the Premier's Department. On 23 September the Premier, J. Service, noted the approval but commented that there was no mention of how many copies were envisaged, leading Wilson to ask M about this; see T. Wilson to M, 26 September 1884. See also T. Wilson to S. Dobson, 26 September 1884 (in this edition as M84-09-26), and S. Dobson to T. Wilson, 27 September 1884 (in this edition as M84-09-27). The work was eventually published in two parts, as B86.04.05 and B88.11.02.
Please cite as “FVM-84-09-11a,” 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