Educational exsiccatae:Ferdinand von Mueller’s botanical lessons in colonial Victoria
by Sara Maroske
by Sara Maroske
Abstract
Introduction
In August 1872, Ferdinand von Mueller (Fig. 1), Victoria’s illustrious Government Botanist and director of the Melbourne Botanic Garden, put an educational proposition to his ministerial chief, James Casey.1 As later explained by Mueller, it was to issue here [i.e. in Victoria,] as in many European countries[,] collections of indigenous plants for public instruction ... in connection with ... works under publication, as the best means to diffuse information on the native vegetation.2
This was a proposal that seemed certain to appeal to a member of the ministry that was about to pass legislation providing ‘free, compulsory and secular schooling’, the first such Act in Australia.3 Nevertheless, Mueller was not well-regarded by Casey, who had just commissioned a report into the management of the Botanic Garden.4 In this context, Mueller could not really be sure how anything he said would be received. Botanical specimens The main idea behind Mueller’s educational proposal in 1872 was to use plants, or rather ‘collections of plants’, to impart basic information about the names of, and relationships between, plants. In the nineteenth century, such ‘collections’ were also known as ‘exsiccatae’, a term that referred to the fact that they consisted of dried specimens. Typically an exsiccata comprised multiple copies of the same set of plants, that had been collected from areas in which they were regarded as ‘indigenous’, or ‘native’, in contrast to plants that were ‘introduced’, or ‘exotic’. Each copy usually
began with a printed page, as in a book, which included a title, date and place of issue, followed by a series of specimens, each one occupying a single page with a printed label bearing the specimen’s scientific name, and information on where and when it was collected. The compilers of exsiccatae usually sold them in parts, by subscription,to private collectors, or to public institutionssuch as museums.5
Mueller believed that the educational value of exsiccatae was well known in ‘many European countries’. This was a fact to which he could testify personally.6 As a young pharmacy-apprentice in Schleswig-Holstein in the 1840s, he was required to construct his own ‘herbarium’, or collection of dried plants, in order to learn how to identify the suite of plants that, at the time, was the source of most medicines.7
Mueller not only did this, but also formed a herbarium of most of the plants in his area. He also obtained specimens from collectors in other areas, including Lars Hansen, a teacher in northern Schleswig who, in exchange, used some of Mueller’s specimens in an exsiccata.8Mueller also gained knowledge of plants by visiting the herbaria of other collectors, and the one at Kiel University, which institution he attended from 1845 to 1847.
The Kiel University herbarium would have contained tens of thousands of specimens, including exsiccatae.9
In 1848, only a year after his arrival in South Australia, Mueller attempted to introduce his knowledge of exsiccatae into his new home by advertising sets of ‘mostly indigenous’ plants for sale in the South Australian Register. This may well have been the first such advertisement in Australia.
Mueller predicted his sets of plants would be ‘a valuable acquisition to public institutions, or an agreeable object of private curiosity at home’, and if taken up by the public would also encourage his own further scientific enquiries ‘into the riches of the Botany of our adopted country’. Each set of plants was to consist of 100 specimens, arranged......
In 1872, Ferdinand von Mueller seized a moment when the Victorian government was intensely interested in education, to put a proposal regarding his own specialty of botany. Based on the idea that the best way to learn about plants was from plants, he sought to distribute sets of dried specimens, or exsiccatae, throughout the colony.
Although hampered by his own troubled relationship with government, he was nevertheless able to place three fascicles in about 50 institutions not previously seen as repositories of this kind of material.
Although hampered by his own troubled relationship with government, he was nevertheless able to place three fascicles in about 50 institutions not previously seen as repositories of this kind of material.
Introduction
In August 1872, Ferdinand von Mueller (Fig. 1), Victoria’s illustrious Government Botanist and director of the Melbourne Botanic Garden, put an educational proposition to his ministerial chief, James Casey.1 As later explained by Mueller, it was to issue here [i.e. in Victoria,] as in many European countries[,] collections of indigenous plants for public instruction ... in connection with ... works under publication, as the best means to diffuse information on the native vegetation.2
This was a proposal that seemed certain to appeal to a member of the ministry that was about to pass legislation providing ‘free, compulsory and secular schooling’, the first such Act in Australia.3 Nevertheless, Mueller was not well-regarded by Casey, who had just commissioned a report into the management of the Botanic Garden.4 In this context, Mueller could not really be sure how anything he said would be received. Botanical specimens The main idea behind Mueller’s educational proposal in 1872 was to use plants, or rather ‘collections of plants’, to impart basic information about the names of, and relationships between, plants. In the nineteenth century, such ‘collections’ were also known as ‘exsiccatae’, a term that referred to the fact that they consisted of dried specimens. Typically an exsiccata comprised multiple copies of the same set of plants, that had been collected from areas in which they were regarded as ‘indigenous’, or ‘native’, in contrast to plants that were ‘introduced’, or ‘exotic’. Each copy usually
began with a printed page, as in a book, which included a title, date and place of issue, followed by a series of specimens, each one occupying a single page with a printed label bearing the specimen’s scientific name, and information on where and when it was collected. The compilers of exsiccatae usually sold them in parts, by subscription,to private collectors, or to public institutionssuch as museums.5
Mueller believed that the educational value of exsiccatae was well known in ‘many European countries’. This was a fact to which he could testify personally.6 As a young pharmacy-apprentice in Schleswig-Holstein in the 1840s, he was required to construct his own ‘herbarium’, or collection of dried plants, in order to learn how to identify the suite of plants that, at the time, was the source of most medicines.7
Mueller not only did this, but also formed a herbarium of most of the plants in his area. He also obtained specimens from collectors in other areas, including Lars Hansen, a teacher in northern Schleswig who, in exchange, used some of Mueller’s specimens in an exsiccata.8Mueller also gained knowledge of plants by visiting the herbaria of other collectors, and the one at Kiel University, which institution he attended from 1845 to 1847.
The Kiel University herbarium would have contained tens of thousands of specimens, including exsiccatae.9
In 1848, only a year after his arrival in South Australia, Mueller attempted to introduce his knowledge of exsiccatae into his new home by advertising sets of ‘mostly indigenous’ plants for sale in the South Australian Register. This may well have been the first such advertisement in Australia.
Mueller predicted his sets of plants would be ‘a valuable acquisition to public institutions, or an agreeable object of private curiosity at home’, and if taken up by the public would also encourage his own further scientific enquiries ‘into the riches of the Botany of our adopted country’. Each set of plants was to consist of 100 specimens, arranged......
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