THE VICTORIAN NATURALIST. 89 



At first Dr. Mueller occupied a small, unpretentious cottage 

 which still overlooks the Yarra below Government House, and 

 the three years succeeding his appointment, 1852-55, were with 

 him times of great activity. In search of plants he explored a 

 large part of Victoria, crossing the Alps, where he gave the name 

 to Mount Hotham. As early as 1853 he had been on the top of 

 Mount Buffalo, and the same year found him starting alone from 

 Melbourne, with three horses, to explore what were then the 

 almost untrodden wilds of Gippsland. The sight of him, as 

 he passed through what was then the countrified suburb of 

 Hawthorn, mounted on his favourite pony, and driving before him 

 his pack-horses laden with his collecting material and slender 

 allowance of food, is still vividly remembered by one of the 

 oldest members of our club. 



The Mallee district and the Grampians were also traversed by 

 him in search of plants to enrich the national Herbarium, which, 

 under his guidance, and due entirely to his zeal, has become by 

 far the richest in the Southern Hemisphere. 



In 1855 he went further afield and joined the veteran explorer, 

 A. C. Gregory, in his expedition across the north-west, on which 

 occasion the Victoria River and other parts were explored. He 

 was one of the four who reached Termination Lake in 1856, and 

 after accompanying Gregory on the return journey to Moreton 

 Bay, he came south again to Melbourne, publishing afterwards 

 the main botanical results in the Linnean Society's journal. 



In 1857 he was appointed, as before said, Director of the 

 Botanic Gardens as well as Government Botanist. At this time 

 the zoological collection was located in the Gardens, and it was 

 during his directorship that the alpacas were introduced to the 

 colony. 



There now commenced the period of his greatest activity, so 

 far as the publication of works is concerned, and from this date 

 up to the time of his death it may be said that he was always 

 engaged upon some publication dealing with the Australian flora. 



One of the earliest of these was the " Plants Indigenous to 

 the Colony of Victoria," whilst between the years 1858 and 1881 

 eleven parts of the " Fragmenta Phytographise Australian " were 

 issued ; this work curiously being, we believe, the first published 

 in Latin in Australia. Its object was to contain descriptions of 

 new species of plants and observations of importance on others 

 which came under his notice, the whole being intended as a 

 record leading up to a comprehensive flora of Australia, which it 

 was his long-cherished desire to issue. When the time came, 

 however, for carrying the work into execution, it was apparent 

 that it could only be successfully done by someone who had 

 access to the type specimens in Europe, and this being impossible 

 in the case of Dr. Mueller, the work was published by Bentham, 



