[…with reference to the botany class the secretary1 reported having written to Baron Von Mueller asking him to deliver a lecture at the school and to suggest a teacher.2 In his reply the Government Botanist stated that he would be happy to lecture later in the year,3 being now very busy, and suggested as the simplest, most pleasant, and least expensive plan of acquiring a knowledge of botany, that those interested should gather two specimens of the flowers and plants indigenous to the district, and dry them—one to be kept in the school for reference; the other to be sent to him, when he would name it, and for every specimen send back classification papers on which to mount the corresponding plant or flower. He also forwarded a large parcel of the Education Department's collection of plants mounted and classified.4 The committee were much pleased with Sir Frederick5 Von Mueller's courtesy.]
Robert C. Elliott, J. P., named in a report of a delegation to the Minister of Education seeking an increased grant for the school, Kyneton observer, 22 February 1890, p. 3.
M did not suggest a teacher.
No lecture by M in Kyneton has been identified.
Probably one or more of the three fascicles of 'Educational collections of Australian plants' issued by M in the 1870s (see Lucas, Maroske & Brown-May (2006), and Maroske (2007)), although these were not issued by the Education Department. 'Two of the fascicles [were] still amply available' a year earlier; M to T. Wilson, 19 January 1889.
Error by the journalist or typesetter?
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Kyneton Technological School', Kyneton observer, 1 February 1890, p. 2, a report of the school committee meeting held on 3 January 1890.
Please cite as “FVM-90-01-00g,” 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