14/4/90
Am quite ashamed, dear Prof. Tate, that the msc. was not got quite ready in time for the March-meeting.1 It was nearly all done, when last I wrote,2 but I had forgotten, amidst arrear-work in the Department, that I had laid some imperfect specimens aside for careful comparison in the botanic Museum; and further I found, that the junior in the Office had not done the clear-writing all properly. When the printed notice of the March-meeting reached me, only one day was left, to send the msc.; and I could not get it away in time.3 Even now, when I forward it, 2 or 3 species are left undone; but the notes, concerning them can be added when the proof for revision comes here, if indeed you think it needful, to send it to me, as the clear writing is fairly distinct. If Mr Tietkens and his companions had gathered specimens with due discrimination in flower and fruit both, which might have been done in many cases, the recording of these plants would have taken up much less time, and we might have had a much larger array.4 The Vict. branch of the R.G.S.A.5 will likely arrange with Mr Lindsay, to explore in this cool season some new portion of Western S.A. and Eastern W.A,6 especially as the heavy rain-showers seem to have extended in those directions, and as seemingly traces of Leichhardt's party have been obtained west or south-west of Termination-Lake,7 where old natives say they saw 4 dead people, two or three white and two or one black (in europ. cloths), as perished for want of water with their horses. Mr Lindsay on a former occasion took some interest personally in gathering botanic specimens; so he is sure to bring this time collections also
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller,
The essay is to appear as a joint one of ours
The record of plants collected by Tietkens during his expedition to Central Australia (B90.14.03; see n. 5) is stated to have been read at the meeting of the Royal Society of SA on 1 April 1890 but, given this letter, what was presented to the meeting could only have been a preliminary version of the report.
See M to R. Tate, 10 March 1890 (in this edition as 90-03-10a).
M is probably referring to the notice, which would have been sent out in March, of the meeting at which the report (B90.14.03) by him and Tate was to be read.
From March to July 1889, William Tietkens led a party west from Alice Springs into the Gibson Dessert to the western extremity of Lake Macdonald, returning via Lake Amadeus to Charlotte Waters (ADB).
Royal Geographical Society of Australasia.
The Victorian Branch of the Society did not organize such an expedition, but Lindsay was appointed by the SA Branch to lead an expedition financed by Sir Thomas Elder; see A. Magarey to M, 26 March 1891, and notes to A. Magarey to M, 29 March 1891.
Now Lake Gregory, WA.
MS black-edged; M's brother-in-law George Doughty died on 26 March 1890.
Please cite as “FVM-90-04-14,” 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