Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎61r] (124/154)

OBITUARY.
523
his official duties to be able to travel, he had a directing hand in many of the
important expeditions that went out from Victoria as well as other colonies.
n recent years Baron von Mueller was actively interested in the promotion of
Antarctic exploration, and was greatly disappointed that the efforts made, both
in this country and in Australia, proved futile. He was a voluminous author, but
his writings are mostly of a strictly scientific character. The titles of over a
mners 7 T iQ the Ro y al ^ty’s catalogue of scientific
papers. Ibis is exclusive of independent works on descriptive and economic
botany, and of which h,s ‘Fragmenta Phytographi* Australia^ covers about a
dozen volumes Almost from the date of his arrival in his adopted continent, he
had entertained the ambition of producing a ‘Flora Australiensis,’ and when
the several governments of the Australian Colonies appointed one of the most
distinguished botanists in England, Mr. G. Benthan, f.b.s., to undertake the work,
Mueller, at once recogn.zing the wisdom of the selection, and that an access to the
Australian collections contained in European Herbaria was essential to the per
fection of the work, generously offered the use of his own unrivalled Herbarim
notes, and observations, in aid of the undertaking. During the whole sixteen years
occupied m the publication of this gigantic undertaking, which extended to seven
volumes, Mueller was unceasing in his efforts to contribute to its success, working
in unbroken harmony with its author throughout. Of his own numerous worffii
three especially are of permanent value, the ‘ Eucalyptographia,’ a history with
excellent drawings of the Eucalypti of the continent; the ‘Select Extratropical
Plants eligible for Industrial Culture in Australia,’ a work unique of its kind and
overflowing with valuable suggestions of a thoroughly practical nature; and his
Introduction to Botanic Teaching in the schools of Victoria.’
l ew men have received so many honours as the late baron. He was one of
the first three in Australia to receive the Order of St. Michael and St. George; he
was promoted to Knighthood in the Order in 1879. In 1871 he was made a
hereditary baron by the King of Wurtemberg. From Portugal and from Spain
he received high orders. He was made a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1861,
and in 1888 the society awarded him one of its Royal medals. He was a corre
sponding member of some 150 scientific societies. He had been a Fellow of the
Royal Geographical Society since 1858.
Personally Baron von Mueller was a man of a warm heart and great kindliness
of nature. 1 hough a botanist by choice and profession, he was in other respects a
man of great culture, interested in many branches of knowledge, and a lover of
music, the practice of which art he zealously advocated amongst the young and
old ol the colony. He was a voluminous correspondent, ever ready to help his
friends; somewhat vain, perhaps, but of a vanity that was never ofifensive. He has
rendered services of a high order to Australia, in the history of the advancement of
which his name will always be held in high honour.
Professor Josiah Dwight Whitney.
Professor Josiah Dwight Whitney, who died last August 24 at the age of
seventy-seven, commenced the long series of geological labours which have made
his name famous in 1840, when he was at work on the survey of New Hampshire.
After spending two years of study in Europe, supplementary to his university
training at 5 ale, he worked out the geology of the Lake Superior region in con
junction with Mr. J. W. Foster, the results being published in 1849, 1850, and
1851. These surveys involved a large amount of topographical mapping as a
necessary preliminary to the geological delineation ; and in most of his subsequent