Melbourne, November 20th, 1881.
Sir,—
The herb submitted to me is a small flowered variety of the British Fumitory, (Fumaria Offirinales L)2. It is known to possess a volatile acridity, and it is quite possible that stock feeding on much of this herb would suffer deleterious effects, although real poison cases arising from Fumaria have never come to my knowledge. Indeed, it seems to me more likely that it was the annual nightshade (Solanum Nigrum) or the creeping Lobelia (L Pratioides)—both frequent on many pastures, and caused the mischief on the You Yangs common some years past.3 At all events the growth of the Fumitory should be suppressed, as the plant serves no pastoral purposes. This can be done by cutting or pulling up the plant before its seeds ripen, the stems not springing again from the root, which is an annual. Places where the Fumaria abounds might be ploughed, and then sown with lucerne, rye grass, or white clover, and other perennial pasture plants, by which means the Fumitory would become suffocated.
I am, etc.,
FRED.4 VON MUELLER
Fumaria Offirinale
Lobelia Pratioides
Solanum Nigrum
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'A day at Wooloomanata', Geelong advertiser, 24 December 1881, p. 1 S. M's letter is introduced by:
Observing a weed, hitherto a stranger, flourishing freely here and there in any rich spots, Mr M'Laren, [the manager of the property] suspecting that it might possibly be the offender [that caused the death of four rams], forwarded, through Mr Riley, Inspector of Stock, a sample to Baron Mueller, for examination and opinion. I herewith append the Baron's reply in extenso:’
Printer's error for Fumaria officinalis?
See, for example, M to J. Casey, 23 March 1873 (in this edition as 73-03-23c).
Printer's error for FERD?
Please cite as “FVM-81-11-20a,” 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