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Ferdinand von Mueller

From Biocrawler, the free encyclopedia.

Baron Ferdinand Jacob Heinrich von Mueller (German: Müller) (June 30, 1825 - October 10, 1896) was a German-Australian physician, geographer, and most notably botanist.

Mueller was born at Rostock, Germany, and was educated, after the early death of his parents, in Schleswig. He studied the flora of Schleswig and Holstein from 1840 to 1847.

At age 22, Müller decided to go to Australia from Bremen. It is said that, still on the ship, he already fished the first plants out of the water to analyse them.

After some time in Adelaide he soon moved to the booming new colony and former state Victoria, namely to Melbourne. He travelled through the colony from 1848 to 1852, discovering and describing a large number of plants previously unknown. By advice of the British botanist Sir William Hooker, he was appointed government botanist for Victoria by governor Charles La Trobe in 1853 (a post that was newly created for him), and examined its flora, and especially the Alpine vegetation of Australia, which was previously unknown.

In the same year, he established the National Herbarium of Victoria, which can still be visited today. It has many plants from Australia and abroad, many of which were collected by von Müller. Also, you can still visit his large private library in Melbourne.

Then, as phytographic naturalist, he joined the expedition sent out under Augustus Gregory by the duke of Newcastle, secretary of state for the colonies. He explored the river Victoria and other portions of North Australia, was one of the four who reached Termination Lake in 1856, and accompanied Gregory's expedition overland to Moreton Bay.

From 1857 to 1873 he was director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, and not only introduced many plants into Victoria, but made the excellent qualities of the blue gum (Eucalyptus globulus) known all over the world, and succeeded in introducing it into the south of Europe, North and South Africa, California, and the extratropical portions of South America.

For these services he was decorated by many foreign countries, including Germany, France, Spain, Denmark and Portugal. He was created K.C.M.G. in 1879, F.R.S. in 1861, and more importantly got the hereditary title of Baron from the King of Württemberg in 1871.

By 1873 influential Melburnians were critical of Mueller's scientific and educational approach with the Royal Botanic Gardens. In April 1873 Mueller created the genus Guilfoylia and described William Guilfoyle as "distinguished as a collector [who] evidenced great ardour" and held high hopes for his collecting ability. Mueller's opinion changed when Guilfoyle was appointed to take his place as Director of the Botanic Gardens in July 1873. He accused Guilfoyle of being a "nurseryman [with] no claims to scientific knowledge whatever" and of getting the job due to being related to the wife of the responsible Minister. Mueller subsequently abolished Guilfoylia as part of the genus of Cadellia in his botanical census of 1882. Guilfoyle went on to landscape the gardens in an aesthtic and pleasing style welcomed by most Melburnians.

In 1873 Mueller received an honorary doctorate of the University of Rostock.

He published eleven volumes of Fragmenta phytographica Australiae'' (1862-1881), two volumes of the Plants of Victoria (1860-1865), and other books on the Eucalyptus, Myoporaceae, Acacias, and Salsolaceae, all profusely illustrated. He also co-operated in the production of George Bentham's Flora Australiensis. He took a leading part in promoting Australian exploration, especially the Burke and Wills expedition, which was the first to cross the continent, and in the various attempts to unravel the mystery which attended the fate of his fellow countryman Ludwig Leichhardt (1813-1848). He died at Melbourne.

The standard botanical author abbreviation F. Muell. is applied to plants he described.

This article incorporates text from the public domain 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

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Bibliography

Chisholm, A. H., Ferdinand von Mueller, Great Australians, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1962
Kynaston, Edward, A Man on Edge: A life of Baron Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, Allen Lane, London; Ringwood, 1981
Voight, Johannes H., Die Erforschung Australiens: Der Briefwechsel zwischen August Pettermann and Ferdinand von Mueller 1861-1878, Justus Perthes Verlag, Gotha, 1996
Home, R.W. (ed), Australian Science in the Making: A Bicentennial History (1990) ISBN 0521396409

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