Felix Maximilian Reader (1850–1911) was a German-born Australian chemist and amateur botanist. Born in Berlin, he trained as a chemist before emigrating to New Zealand, then shortly afterwards, in the 1880s, to Australia. In the 1890s he settled at

Dimboola, Victoria Dimboola is a town in the Shire of Hindmarsh in the Wimmera region of western Victoria, Australia, 334 kilometres north-west of Melbourne. History Situated on the Wimmera River, Dimboola was previously known as 'Nine Creeks'. Following a survey ...

, where he had a chemist's shop until the early 1900s. He was an enthusiastic botanist, publishing many papers in the ''

Victorian Naturalist ''The Victorian Naturalist'' is a bimonthly scientific journal covering natural history, especially of Australia. It is published by the Field Naturalists Club of Victoria and is received as part of the membership subscription of that club. From ...

'', establishing himself as an expert on the

grass Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

es of the southern

Wimmera The Wimmera is a region of the Australian state of Victoria. The district is located within parts of the Loddon Mallee and the Grampians regions; and covers the dryland farming area south of the range of Mallee scrub, east of the South Austral ...

, and collecting the type specimen of ''

Acacia glandulicarpa ''Acacia glandulicarpa'', commonly known as the hairy-pod wattle, is a perennial shrub belonging to the genus '' Acacia'' and the subgenus ''Phyllodinea'' that is native to parts of south eastern Australia. The shrub typically grows to a height ...

''. He also amassed a large private herbarium, which he sold to the

National Herbarium of Victoria The National Herbarium of Victoria ( Index Herbariorum code: MEL) is one of Australia's earliest herbaria and the oldest scientific institution in Victoria. Its 1.5 million specimens of preserved plants, fungi and algae—collectively known a ...

in 1906. '' Brachycome readeri'' and '' Pottia readeri'' are named in his honour.

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