[ Baron Von Mueller wrote to say that the discovery of the mangosteen1 alone was worth more than the cost of the whole expedition.]
The report of the 1889 expedition included a description of 'Meston's Mangasteen', Garcinia mestoni, in Bailey (1889), p. 31.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The Bellenden-Ker Expedition', a letter from Archibald Meston to the editor of the Brisbane courier, 24 January 1896, p. 6. It appeared at a time when the Queensland Fruitgrowers’ Association requested, unsuccessfully, that the Government fund another expedition led by Meston to Mt Bellenden-Ker to collect species potentially valuable for commercial fruit production, at a cost of £125. Meston wrote
In justice to all concerned, kindly allow me to say that the Bellenden-Ker expedition of 1889 cost £309. My own services were offered to Mr. Morehead, the Premier, gratuitously, and accepted. … Some time after the return and finish up of the expedition, I received a cheque for £100, and a complimentary letter from the Morehead Government … partly because Mr. Morehead deemed it unfair for a private citizen to give his time and labour to the public for nothing. This brought the total cost to £409.
The comment from M's letter follows that passage.
The context of Meston's letter suggests that the letter from M to which he referred was addressed to him; it is dated here to 1890 as the earliest probable date following the publication of Meston (1889), which was distributed in December.
Please cite as “FVM-90-00-00y,” 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