Physical description

The Plants Indigenous To The Colony of Victoria Vol 1
Author: Ferdinand Mueller
Publisher: John Ferres Government Printer Melbourne
Date: 1864-1865
Further Information: Blue patterned front cover and spine with gilt lettering to spine and Library labels

Publication type

non-fiction

Inscriptions & markings

The label on the spine cover with typed text PAT F 580 MUE
Pastedown front endpaper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute and Free Library
Front loose endpaper has a sticker from Warrnambool Mechanics Institute
Flyleaf has a stamp from Corangamite Regional Library Service

Summary

The Plants Indigenous to the Colony of Victoria is a landmark botanical work by Australia’s prominent colonial botanist, Baron Ferdinand von Mueller. However, there is a common point of confusion in Australian botanical bibliography regarding the "volumes" of this specific work. To understand what Volume 1 and the other three volumes are about, and how they differ from each other in the four-book set, it helps to look at exactly how Mueller’s project was published. Volume 1 represents Mueller's highly detailed, beautifully illustrated standalone success covering the Thalamiflorae. It differs from the subsequent "volumes" because Volume 2 was abandoned as a rare, 40-page unfinished fragment, and Volumes 3 and 4 were never written, as Mueller pivoted to assist with the broader Flora Australiensis.