Melbourne: Oct. 11
I have already written to you from the Murrumbidgee River about the extraordinary frequency of two of the dwarf salt-bushes from the Murrumbidgee to the Lachlan River, and beyond.1 The traveller may pass over plains unbroken as far as the eye reaches, and these almost exclusively occupied by Atriplex vesicaria and A. halimoides. Both bushes are nutritious to sheep, and will sustain also horses and cattle, especially in seasons of drought. I was told that the heat has exceptionally there culminated in 175° Fahr. in the sun, and 125° in the shade. This frightful heat, which drives birds into the buildings of the settlers, does not shrivel the Salsolaceae, nor the foliage of the Eucalyptus rostrata and some others; and there are besides numerous other plants which will bear this intense temperature, which far exceeds that given by Sachs2 as the limit of heat which a general vegetation will endure. I had an opportunity when on the Lachlan to trace a great many of the southern species so far northerly, whilst again a few tropical plants were found nearly as far south as the Murrumbidgee: for instance, Apophyllum anomalum, Goodenia cycloptera occurred in extraordinary abundance, Clianthus Dampieri grows here, not on sand, but on a firm loamy ground; it is a glorious object, visible at long distances. Some of the plains were quite white with Helipterum floribundum, of which stock are very fond; other vast tracts have a violet tinge from the flowers of Swainsona procumbens. I found on the Lachlan River also the curious Geococcus pusillus, which, like Cardamine chenopodifolia, buries its pods in the soil for maturation. Senecio platylepis, previously known only from one spot, occurs on the Lachlan and Murrumbidgee Rivers millionfold,
Ferd. von Mueller.
Apophyllum anomalum
Atriplex halimoides
Atriplex vesicaria
Cardamine chenopodifolia
Clianthus Dampieri
Eucalyptus rostrata
Geococcus pusillus
Goodenia cycloptera
Helipterum floribundum
Salsolaceae
Senecio platylepis
Swainsona procumbens
Please cite as “FVM-78-10-11c,” 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