Geographical Journal (Journal of the Royal Geographical Society): Volume VIII, No. 5 [‎60v] (123/154)

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OBITUARY.
Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller.
'We learn with much regret of the death of Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller,
k.c.m.g., f.r.s., the eminent Government Botanist of \ictoria, Australia. hor
nearly half a century Von Mueller’s name has been intimately associated with
the progress of science and exploration in Australia, and especially with the
development of its vegetable resources. He was born at Rostock, in Germany, in
June, 1825, losing his parents at an early age. He obtained a training in pharmacy,
and in his leisure time devoted himself to the study of botany and chemistry. In
1816-47 he studied at the University of Kiel, where he took the degree of Ph.D.
For several years he investigated the botany of Schleswig and Holstein. In 1847,
in order to counteract a hereditary tendency to phthisis, he emigrated to Adelaide,
in South Australia, where he commenced his career as assistant to a chemist, and
during the following four years devoted himself to the investigation of the flora of
the colony. From 1848 to 1852 he travelled over 4000 miles, mainly for botanical
purposes. In 1852 he was appointed Government botanist to the colony of
Victoria by Mr. Latrobe, the first Governor, and here he at once entered upon
the labours for the exploration of the continent and development of its vegetable
resources and capabilities that only ceased with his death. From this year dates
also his series of publications on the botany of Australia, which in extent
and value represent no small proportion of an Australian bibliography. In
1855-56 he accompanied as botanist the expedition under the command of A. C.
Gregory for the exploration of North and Central Australia, and was one of the
four^to reach Termination Lake in Central Australia. Some 6000 miles of
previously unknown land was traversed, and abundant collections made of the
various forms of vegetation. On Mueller’s return to Melbourne he was appointed
Director of the Botanical Garden of that city. Whilst rendering immense services,
not only to Australia, but to many other countries, he iailed to satisfy the wishes
of the colonists for a garden which should, like Kew, be as ornamental as useful.
Mueller was neither a practical horticulturalist nor a landscape gardener, and the
Victorians, seeing with envy in the capital of a sister colony (Adelaide) the
erection of a garden as aesthetic as scientific, relieved him of the directorship of
the garden, at the same time, with rare liberality, retaining him in the position of
Government botanist, with undiminished salary, library allowances, and appliances
for pursuing his labour in scientific and economic botany.
Though mortified almost beyond endurance by this action of his fellow-colonists,
Mueller, with undiminished zest and liberality, continued his exertions as their bene
factor to the day of his death. He was the introducer into Australia of many useful
plants from other regions, in exchange sending abroad plants native to Australia
of more or less economic value. He had a leading hand in introducing that most
useful of Australian trees, the eucalyptus, into Algeria, India, the Riviera, and
other countries, in some of which it is of essential service as timber and fuel, and
in others as an aid in draining marshy land. He was the first to raise the great
Victoria Regia water-lily. Indeed, his immense knowledge as a botanist had
almost always a practical end in view, and not a few Australian industries are
largely indebted to him for their development. It was also partly due to his
suggestion that the camel was introduced into Australia and first used for exploring
purposes in 1860. His own travels in Australia for botanical purposes, on foot and
on horseback, covered some 25,000 miles. After he himself had ceased, owing to