Melbourne Botanic Garden, 23rd March 1873.
Sir,
In reply to your communication, just received, I have the honor to inform you that the weeds of which you transmit a sample, is botanically known as Lobelia pratioides, and belongs to a genus of highly poisonous plants. Hence I have no doubt that the death of the cattle at Geelong, Maidstone, and Braybrook2 is to be traced to the prevalence of this herb at this season on spots very bare of pastoral vegetation. The best means for setting this question at rest would be to administer the herb to a sheep or some other pastoral animal, and to watch whether the animal thus experimented on will succumb under the same symptoms which were manifested when the cattle at Geelong, &c., expired.
I have, &c.,
(Signed) Ferd. von Mueller,
Director of the Botanic Garden.
The Chief Inspector of Sheep.
Postscript. — I would advise that patches densely beset with the Lobelia, which is perennial, should be ploughed and then sown with the seeds of vigorously growing perennial grasses, clovers, luzern, &c.
Lobelia pratioides
Please cite as “FVM-73-03-23b,” 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