10 HISTORY OF BOTANY IN SOUTH AUSTRALIA. 



In December, 1847, a young man, who was destined to become the 

 most distinguished of Australian botanists, landed at Port Adelaide. 

 This was Dr. Ferdinand Mueller, who was born at Rostock in 1825, 

 and had taken his degree as doctor of philosophy at the University 

 of Kiel in 1847. He obtained employment in a chemist's shop in 

 Rundle Street, but found time to make botanical excursions in the 

 Mount Lofty Ranges, at Guichen Bay, in the Murray scrub, and as 

 far north as Mounts Brown and Arden. In 1852 he was appointed, 

 through the influence of Sir William Hooker, to the position of 

 Government Botanist of Victoria. Then commenced that long career 

 of exploration, collection, and study of Australian plants which gave 

 him a pre-eminent place in the world of science. His descriptions 

 of numerous new species, records of fresh localities, and critical 

 observations on Australian systematic botany are for the most part 

 contained in the " Fragment a phytographiae Australiae, " published 

 in 11 volumes and part of a 12th, Melbourne, 1858-82. Not less 

 important are his illustrated works on the Eucalypts, the Acacias, 

 and the Salsolaceous and Myoporaceous plants of Australia, In 1871 

 the King of Wurtemberg created him a baron, and in 1879 he was 

 knighted by Queen Victoria, and became Baron Sir Ferdinand von 

 Mueller, K.C.M.G. He died in 1896. 



In 1858 B. Herschel Babbage was dispatched by the South 

 Australian Government to explore the country between Lake Torrens 

 and Lake Gairdner, and he took with him a young Bavarian named 

 David Hergolt as botanical collector. His numerous specimens were 

 determined by Mueller in a report published at Melbourne in 1859. 

 The genus Babbagia was named after the leader of the expedition. 

 Hergolt was commemorated by J. McDouall Stuart in April, 1859, 

 as the discoverer of Herrgott or Hergott Springs (the name, as 

 printed in Stuart's "Journals," is already corrupted into both 

 these forms). Hergolt died in Melbourne in 1861. 



It was also in 1858 that A. C. Gregory, leader of the Barcoo 

 expedition in search of Leichhardt, arrived at Cooper Creek, in 

 South Australian territory. His plants were recorded by Mueller in 

 a report published in 1859. 



At about the same time (between May, 1858, and January, 1860) 

 John McDouall Stuart made various excursions into the country 

 westward of Lakes Torrens and Eyre, and southward to Denial and 

 Streaky Bays, before undertaking his great transcontinental journeys, 

 1860 to 1862. His plants were catalogued by Mueller in the fourth 

 volume of the Transactions of the Philosophical Institute of Victoria 

 (1860), without localities, and in an appendix to the "Journals of 

 J. McDouall Stuart" (1864), but very few species appear to have 

 been collected in South Australia. 



The final tragedy of the Burke and Wills expedition (1860-61) 

 took place on the banks of Cooper Creek, in South Australian 

 territory, but no collecting was done in this State, as Dr. Hermann 

 Beckler, the botanist and medical officer, did not advance further 

 than the Bulloo camp, in south-western Queensland. Some new 

 species were discovered by Beckler in New South Wales, near the 

 Barrier Range, and for the most part these also inhabit South 

 Australia, They were described by Mueller. 



A. W. Howitt, who led the relief expedition, was on Cooper Creek 

 in September, 1861, and February, 1862. Botanical specimens, 



