NORTH AUSTRALIAN EXPLORING EXPEDITION. 13 



add but little to this request ; I will however state, that in case of 

 my death I have made arrangements for my own private herbarium 

 and collections^ and the manuscripts of the Flora of Victoria, to be for- 

 warded to England for publication." 



Dr. Mueller's most just and reasonable request to be allowed to have 

 a full set of his specimens for his especial use has been forwarded to us 

 by the Colonial OfiG.ce ; and the Chief Secretary of the Colonies has not 

 failed to grant his sanction to so modest a request from a true man of 



science, as Dr. Mueller is. 



A second letter on this subject from Dr. Mueller, — showing that 

 even in the environs of Sydney, in the midst of the bustle of prepara- 

 tion for a long and hazardous journey, he can collect information, if 

 it be only in relation to the geographical limits of Australian plants, 



will afford some interesting: extracts. It is dated " On board the 



to 



5> 



Monarch, off Moreton Bay, July 22, 1855. 



" In a former letter addressed to you, I had only time to inform you 

 that I was on leave of absence for eighteen months, without support 

 fi'om the Victoria Government, to resume my labours in Melbourne at 

 the beginning of 1857. My favourite plan was to traverse, at my own 

 expense, the interior districts of Eastern Subtropical Australia in the 



meanwhile, when I hoped to advance a little further our knowledge of 

 Australian plants. Since however my private resources are reduced to 

 almost nothing, I accepted the appointment as Botanist for the North 

 Australian Expedition, which his Excellency the Governor-General had 

 been pleased to confer upon me. Still I am far from expressing here- 

 with, that financial reflections influenced me to embark in an expedi- 

 tion into tropical Australia. In fact it has been with very great re- 

 luctance that I accepted the appointment, dangerous as it is, not only 

 with regard to our personal safety, but also perhaps to my position as 

 a botanist. Eor if in any degi-ee a comparison will be drawn between 

 the results probably arising from botany in this expedition, and those 

 which are generally gained in tropical peregrinations, I feel sure that I 

 shall by no means satisfy your expectations. The scanty means of carry- 

 ing the collections, the well-known hostility of the natives, and above 

 all the aridity of the country, are likely to be so many obstacles in ac- 

 cumulating large collections of plants ; nor can the share of new plants 

 be great, if we are not able to reach elevated mountains in the interior, 

 as the coast vegetation is already so well known through Robert Brown 



