Plants collected by Babbage

Baron Ferdinand Von Mueller the author of this report was the Director of the Royal Melbourne Botanical Gardens. Mueller was the leading Australian botanist and botanical specimens were frequently submitted to him for examination and identification. His own collecting trips provided valuable additions to the record of Australia flora and in addition to being a prolific writer of papers, he maintained an enormous correspondence worldwide.

The specimens described by Mueller were collected by Benjamin Herschel Babbage during his expedition to the far north of South Australia in 1858. Babbage had been sent north to explore and survey by the South Australian government, to look for pastoral lands, mineral deposits and to conduct a careful survey of the land. However his progress was considered too slow and he was replaced by Peter Egerton Warburton. Babbage discovered and described in detail the first (Emerald Spring) of the numerous mound springs which bubble up from the Great Artesian Basin and provide reliable water in an otherwise waterless land.

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