LINNEAN SOCIETY OF LONDOIC. 63 



Mueller was a prodigious correspondent, he estimated Iiis 

 letters at 3000 annually, long letters mostly, and on large paper. 

 His handwriting was peculiar, large and fairly legible ; his style 

 was his own — he never began a letter in the orthodox way, but 

 introduced tlie name of the recipient in the first sentence in 

 some way or other. He was equally unconventional in closing 

 his epistles, usually signing himself " regardfuliy yours." He 

 was generous in distributing specimens and seeds. 



He was a member of about 150 different societies, of which he 

 was most inordinately proud ; he was elected Fellow of this 

 Society 20th Jan. 1859 ; of the Eoyal Society in 1861 ; of English 

 Societies he belonged also to the G-eological, Eoyal Greographical, 

 the Chemical ; was a Corresponding Member of the Zoological 

 and an Honorary Member of the E-oyal Horticultural Societies. 

 His delight in appending these distinctions was great, and may 

 be seen on the titlepages of his ' Fragmenta,' where a solid block 

 of such ascriptions follows his name. In 1871 he was created an 

 hereditary Baron by the King of Wiirtemberg, was one of the 

 first to be appointed to the Order of St. Michael and St. Greorge, 

 in which he was promoted to the rank of Knight Commander 

 in 1879 (hence his style iu English official documents as Sir 

 Ferdinand von Mueller) ; the Eoyal Society awarded him a Eoyal 

 Medal in 1888. 



His passion for science caused him to lead a solitary life ; 

 he never married ; and visitors to him found him crowded up with 

 bundles of dried plants, correspondence, and the like. His 

 personal habits were very frugal and simple, and he used to 

 make it his jocular boast that he had never been the possessor 

 of a watch or of a looking-glass. He estimated that he had 

 spent £20,000, which he had saved out of his official income, in 

 promoting the cause of science ; and has been heard to complain 

 that while his explorations of tlie Interior opened up the avenues 

 to wealth to many of his fellow-colonists, he was unable to 

 mention one single act of substantial generosity which he had 

 ever received at their hands. 



Dr. Petermann, the great German geographer, declared that 

 the centre of Australia would never have been opened up but 

 for Dr. Mueller ; Sir Eoderick Murchison said that the mantle 

 of Eobert Brown had fallen on his shoulders. Sir William 

 Hooker and Professor Harvey both dedicated important works 

 to him ; and Professor J. E. Planchon, writing in the ' Eevue 

 des Deux Mondes,' remarked of him that he combined the 

 thoroughness of the G-erman with the practical good-sense of the 

 English man of science. When the last Geographical Congress 

 assembled in Vienna, five special votes of thanks were awarded to 

 men who were considered to have rendered exceptional services 

 to the cause of science, and Baron vou Mueller was one of the 

 five. His title of Baron, it may be here conveniently remarked, 

 was conferred upon him by the King of Wiirtemberg in 1871, 

 on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of his marriage 



