28/11/90
This morning, dear Mr LeSouef, I had a letter from Mr Lucas1 after I had spoken to the President of the F. N. Club,2 in reference to a proposal of mine, that the time of the monthly meeting and of the issue of the Naturalist3 should be altered, as this would be the best time in the year to do so, just towards the close of the year. What I recommend is simply, that the meeting should be held near the end of the month, not in the first week, so that the journal could appear also at the close of the month or very soon after. Then the December number, for instance, would contain the December-work, whereas now it will be called the January-number, and a whole months priority is lost. If no meeting was held in December, and the Journal also not be made to appear for one month, we would then have in January 1891 the work of that month recorded & be right subsequently An editorial note would set this right, and the January number might be made larger than usual.
Regardfully
your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Most Science-Societies have their meetings at the end of the month or at all events at the middle of the month.
Regardfully
your
Ferd. von Mueller
Do you like to join the Royal Hortic Soc. of Engl. as [F]RHS? I will gladly propose you. It costs only £2 a year4
Letter not found.
Charles A. Topp, President, Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria.
Victorian naturalist.
It is not known whether M nominated Le Souef; the 19th-century nomination certificates of the Royal Horticultural Society can no longer be found. Le Souef is not among the Fellows elected during 1891 ('Extracts from the proceedings', Journal of the Royal Horticultural Society, vol 13, pp. vii-clxcvi,1891).
Dudley Le Souef was one of the two secretaries of the Field Naturalists’ Club of Victoria at this time, so the letter was more likely addressed to him than to his father, Albert Le Souef.
Please cite as “FVM-90-11-28,” 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