To Thomas Ware   11 October 1874

Melbourne

11/10/74

Th. Ware Esqr,

Acting Under Secretary, &c &c

Sir.

In reply to your communication from the Secretary of the Lands Department, received this day,¹ I have the honor to inform you, that the small oblong or cylindrical tubers, marked as "wild Onions" and transmitted without flowers and fruits, are those of Diuris maculata (which again can hardly be distinguished from those of D. longifolia and D. sulphurea.) These however cannot have caused the death of the child, as was supposed according to the brief memorandum, which accompanies these roots, in as much as the tubers of terrestrial Orchids yield as a rule simply mucilaginous principles without noxious property.

I regard it most likely, that the local vernacular name "Wild Onions" refers collectively to several kinds of small globular native tubers, which can be converted into food; but that in this instance the unfortunate child gathered those of the Sundew herb, of which indeed simultaneously a specimen was sent without roots. The particular species of Sundew-herb, submitted to me, is Drosera peltata. It is one of several kinds, occurring within the boundaries of our colony; they are all possessed of a poisonous saps like those of other countries, and their acridity is so great as to afford an epispastic in Surgery. This poisonous principle extends to the roots; hence it was probably this Drosera, but not the Diuris, which caused the sad death of the child at Albury.²

Pasture-animals here and in other countries have succumbed to the Drosera-poison; but no instance is on record, according to which any of these Droseras have proved fatal to human beings. This may readily be accounted for by the circumstance, that not all Droseras have tuberous roots, such as children in unguarded playfulness would gather. The poison in the Drosera-sap is not likely of an alkaloid or otherwise fixed form, but belongs probably to the volatile or otherwise not crystalline poisons, which to investigate requires the most complicated processes in chemical analysis, often involving very protracted research. For any kinds of toxicologic experiments I have no longer (since many months) my laboratory, nor its votes, its apparatus and its chemicals. Neither could poison plants or any other remarkable kinds of our native plants be illustrated since the last five years for general information and recognition, in as much as the votes of my Department became so reduced since those years, that the further issue of the lithograms became an impossibility.

In conclusion I beg respectfully to suggest, that in all similar cases, when my professional information is needed, the whole correspondence may be submitted to my Department, as was customary on all former occasions, because it must be obvious, that all the collateral circumstances concerning the action of poison plants (or any other kinds of plants under investigation) must be taken into consideration, when the nature of any particular poison or other property is to be reported on.

I have the honor to be,

Sir, your obedient servant

Ferd von Mueller.³

Diuris longifolia

Diuris maculata

Diuris sulphurea

Drosera peltata