Mueller, Sir Ferdinand Von

Sir Ferdinand von Mueller, in full Sir Ferdinand Jakob Heinrich, Freiherr (baron) von Mueller, Mueller also spelled Müller, (born June 30, 1825, Rostock, Mecklenburg-Schwerin [Germany]—died Oct. 10, 1896, Melbourne, Vic., Austl.), German-born Australian botanist and explorer who was known for his studies of the plants of Australia.

After an apprenticeship as pharmacist, Mueller began the study of botany at the University of Kiel. Soon after receiving his Ph.D., he left Germany for Adelaide, South Australia (1847), where for some time he worked as a pharmacist. The same year he started writing a series of papers on the flora of southern Australia. Appointed as a foundation government botanist of Victoria in 1853, he moved to Melbourne and traveled throughout the surrounding area conducting extensive botanical studies.

In 1857 Mueller was appointed director of the botanical gardens at Melbourne, where he had built what is now the national herbarium. He continued to make numerous explorative trips throughout Australia. In 1858 the first volume of his Fragmenta Phytographiae Australiae, 12 vol. (1858–82), appeared. With the British botanist George Bentham he wrote a systematic monograph on the flora of Australia, Flora Australiensis: A Description of the Plants of the Australian Territory (1863–78). His most popular book was Select Plants Readily Eligible for Industrial Culture or Naturalization in Victoria (1876). In recognition of his outstanding contributions to botany, Mueller was elected to membership in the Royal Society of London at the age of 36. He was created a hereditary baron by the king of Württemberg in 1871, and he was knighted in 1879.