Melbourne bot. Garden
20/5/64
Dear Sir.
I replied to your enquiry about what plants I would recommend for your pasture-ground by last mail.1 But as letters may get lost I briefly repeat, that in my opinion you have for perennial fodder plants mainly to rely on plants of the northern hemisphere. Trifolium repens, Lolium perenne, Medicago sativa, Bromus (Ceratochloa) unioloides with perhaps a few other Clovers must be, I think your stronghold. But you might with advantage add Hedysarum coronarium and perhaps Cichorium intybus. As you desired to try our perennial grasses I have gathered for you as far as the lateness of the season permitted and have much pleasure in sending you in care of Mr Geo Coppin, who goes probably with Mr & Mrs Kean via Callao to San Francisco, parcels of seeds of Danthonia pilosa, Eragrostis Brownii, Microlaena stipoides. For Anthistiria Australis I was this season too late.
In the box is also contained a set of the transactions of our R. S.2 for your valued academy of sciences3 (5 volumes) also 4 volumes of my own work, which perhaps you will kindly deliver. For Mr Bolander I enclosed a set of moss-plates,4 & 194 sp. of dried plants, for Dr Behr or Dr Kellagg5 184 sp. of dried plants, for Dr Behr some pamphlets, for S. W. Moore Esq 46 larger lots of seeds 159 smaller dito for Mr Walker of the Golden Gate Nursery 46 sp of s[eeds] in larger quantity.6
If dry plants would prove acceptable to your Academy I will gladly send from time to time some supplies.
With cordial regards
yr
Ferd Mueller.
Anthistiria Australis
Bromus unioloides
Ceratochloa unioloides
Cichorium intybus
Danthonia pilosa
Eragrostis Brownii
Hedysarum coronarium
Lolium perenne
Medicago sativa
Microlaena stipoides
Trifolium repens
The arrival of M’s parcel was reported under the heading 'Forage plants for California' in Daily Alta California, 13 October 1864, p. [2]: ‘The last vessel from Australia brought to Professor Brewer of the State Geological survey, a tin-lined box full of Australian seeds, sent by Dr. Mueller, Government botanist of the colony of Victoria. Among these seeds were six packages of seeds of indigenous grasses or forage plants of Australia.’
The report continued:
It is known that there is a considerable resemblance between the climate of California and that of Victoria. Many of the plants of each thrive in the other. Australia has immense herds of neat cattle and sheep, which fatten on the indigenous grasses, and there is reason to hope that some of these grasses may thrive here. California is poor in forage plants. Not one of our grasses is strong enough to form a thick sod that will retain its vitality through the summer on the dry plains. Professor Brewer has devoted considerable attention to the subject and so has Dr. Bolander a botanist of this city. Experiments will be tried with these Australian grass seeds to ascertain their value. The introduction of a better grass than any that we now have would be worth the expense of a hundred geological surveys.
When the item was reprinted in the California farmer and journal of useful sciences , 14 October 1864, p. 89, an editorial comment was added in parentheses: 'We may differ from our contemporary, for we think we have some of the best forage plants in the world. Of this we shall speak by and by'.
Please cite as “FVM-64-05-20d,” in Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, edited by R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora†, J.H. Voigt† and Monika Wells accessed on 18 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/64-05-20d