Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich Mueller ( 1825 - 1896 )

During a period when widespread botanical exploration was flourishing , one of the richest areas of the world was the Australian continenet .And one of those most instrumental in advancing the boatanical knowledge of that region was Dr. Ferdinand Mueller.

Born at Rostock ,Germany ,on 30 June 1825,Muller was educated for the medical profession ,studying medicine and natural history at Kiel University . Botany was of great interest to him ,and between 1840 and 1847 he botanized at Schleswig and Holstein , taking his Ph.D. in 1846 with a thesis on Capsella bursa -pastoris . During that year he also published a paper on the flora of Schleswig- Holstein.

In 1847 Mueller developed premonitory symptoms of tuberculosis .Seeking a more climate , and having already lost both his parents , he left northern Germany that year and emigrated to Australia .The change of climate proved beneficial and he took a position as assistant to a chemist in Adelaide. Having sufficient means of his own, however, he left that position and for four years devoted his full time to the botanical and geographical exploration of South Australia .During that time he explored the then almost unknown Australian Alps,making extensive collections of plants and sending duplicates to botanists in Europe . Meanwhile his reputation grew as a naturalist of great promise and industry.

On the recommendation of Sir Joseph D. Hooker , director of the Kew Botanic Gardens, Muller was appointed government botanist to the colony of Victoria in 1852. His first work on the botany of Australia appeared in Linnaea ,volume XXV, 1852, under the title of " Diagonoses et Descriptiones Plantarum Novarum , quas in Nova Hollandia australi pracipue in regionibus interioribus detexit dt investigavit ." Then followed a series of papers on the botany of the same region in Hooker;s London Journal of Botany ,and in 1855, in the first volume of the Transactions of the Philosophical Society of Victoria , he published his descriptions of the novelties he discovered in the Australian Alps. From that time on not a month passed without some published account of his work on the flora of Australia .

In 1855-1856 he was attached to an expedition sent out to explore the Victoria River and other districts in central and northern Australia . On this expedition nearly twenty degree of unexplored conuntry were covered and Mueller collected many plants.

In 1857 he became director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens , a post he held until 1873 when , much aganist his will, he was removed in consequence of his not meeting the popular requirement of the period . This action was taken as a personal affront and he never entered the gardens again. He was retained under his former salary as government botanist ,however , and the herbarium and library remained under his control. He never got over hsi dismissal as director ,though , and many of his subsequent letters contained biting references to it .

The first volume of his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australia was published in 1858-1859.These were continued until about 1882, comprising eleven thin volumes and a fragment of a twelfth-probably the first work in Latin published in Australia .These volumes weer critical observations of Australian plants and gave evidence of the progress of botanical discovery on that continent . Among others of his botanical works were Systematic Census of Australian species was given; Eucalyptographia , published in 1884; a work on the Myoporinous Plants of Australia (1886); the Iconography of Australia Salsolaceous Plants (1889-1891). He was also the author of an important economic work on plants suitable for industrial culture or naturalization which was translated into several languages and passed through many editions.

Muller's greatest ambition had been to preapre a flora of the whole of Australia ; toward that end he had long been collecting materials . When the question of such a work arose in 1861 ,however ,many botanists deemed it essential that the work be done by someone having access to the type specimens in Europe. Mueller cheerfully agreed and magnanimously and unselfishly sent his extensive herbarium to Kew, where George Bentham could study the specimens and at least partially form his bases of identicifation for the seven volumes of Flora Australiensis that appeared from 1863 to 1877.

Ferdinand Mueller was a man of great energy and varied interests -despite a somewhat frail constitution-as may be shown by other of his interests .He was a keen geographer , having done exploratory work in Victoria , Tasmania ,Northern Territory , and western Australia . He also helped in raising funds for explorations in New Guinea and Antarctica,and aided other well-known explorers in their labors . The esteem in which he was held by geographers is evidenced by the fact that a river in Queensland , a mountain in Spitzbergen , a range of mountains in New Guinea , a waterfall in Brazil, and a glacier in New Zealand all bear his name.

He named more Australian plants than any other botanist, and scarcely any Australian or European botanic garden failed to be enriched by his generousity . He was tireless in developing the resources of Australia and was directly or indirectly involved in many flourishing new industries . At his instigation , the camel was originally brought to central Australia for transport purposes .To orchidology he also contributed significantly , naming and describing about seventy species of Australian orchids. Well known among them are Bulbophyllum minutissimum ,Cymbidium hilli , Dendrobium dicuphum ,Dendrobium gracilicaule , and Dendrobium smilliae , as well as species of Caladenia ,Cryptostylis , Diuris, Prasophyllum , Pterostylis , Sarcochilus , Sturmia ,Thelymitra , and others. Arachnis muelleri and Oberonia muelleriana keep the memor of this energetic orchidologist alive still.

Muller was inordinately proud of the honors and distinctions accorded him and delighted in adorning himself with his many titles and decorations .He was a corresponding member of over 150 scientific and political societies and was at the head or intimately associated with every movement for the promotion of intellectual culture. Though he gave his full enthusiasm to all that related to botanical and geographical exploration, he was neverthless a strong supporter of the renowned Melbourne musical society and other social institutions. He was elected a fellow of the Linnean Society in 1859 and of the Royal Society in 1861. In 1871 he was made an hereditary baron by the King of Wurtemberg and was one of the first to be appointed to the Order of St. Michael and St. George .Queen Victoria make him a knight commander of that order in 1879. In 1888 he was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Society .

It was conjectured that Muller" denied himself the pleasures of matrimony partly from conscientious motives, but particularly in order to be free to gibe his time and his income to his favourite pursuits ." Domestic comfors actually were few in his home , for all the rooms were blocked with specimens , so that sitting room and comfort were much lacking .

Mueller's insatiable appetite for titles and distinctions caused him to publish botanical contributions in every possible channel open to him. Occasionally this led to regrettable inconsistencies of botanical nomenclature.He needlessly added to the synoymy of Australian plants, publishing many of them under two generic names simultaneously , so that whichever generic view one might take, Muller's name would still stand as authoritative ! This practice , as well as other vagaries,were incomprehensible considering his botanical experience.Even so , the magnitude of his services to science is incredible and is consiedered of great value.

He died in Melbourne on 9 October 1896.

References

Gardener's Chronicle . 1896.Sir Ferdinand Mueller.Vol. 20,no. 512.

Garden,The . 1896. Obitury. 50: 322

Journal of Botany . 1897.Ferdinad von Mueller.Vol. 35,no. 415.

Kerr, Ronald . 1966. The Tool that Moved the World .Amer. Orch. Soc. Bull. 35,no. 4.

White,C.T. 1940. A History of Australian Orchids. Australian Orch. Rev. 5, no.4.