5/3/85
In the Garden & Field for March 1885 is an interesting paper, dear Prof Tate, communicated by Mr S. Dixon,1 concerning native shrubs in arid places of S.A. for fodder. As your name is identified to some extent with this essay,2 you will allow me to remark, that the Zygophyllums here as well as in South-Africa have proved poisonous to sheep. Several distinct reports in this respect have in the course of years reached me from various parts of Australia; and as the experience with the South African species is the same, I must assume, that the information is correct. Furthermore a medical friend of mine adscribes the loss of cattle on his farm in Gippsland to Goodia lotifolia, so closely allied to the S. Australian G. medicaginea. So it might be well to yard off a sheep or calf, to see how they behave when fed for a few days on Goodia exclusively. As you will be aware various poisonous plants exist in the tribe Genisteae of Leguminosae, a familiar example being the Laburnum. In the same way the deadly Physostigma (Old Calabar Bean) is in another tribe of leguminous plants closely allied to Phaseolus the French Bean; while the main bulk of poison-bushes of S.W. Australia, so destructive in many place to herds and flocks, are also leguminous. I think therefore, that the article in the Garden and Field should be followed up, by some cautioning, especially as the run-holders are commencing to utilize in some places the native shrubs &c. for ensilage.
As regards the limits between Kochia aphylla and Kochia villosa, I have in vain endeavoured to define them as specific forms; and this is brought best to the test in endeavouring to write a diagnosis for each. We have similar cases with Rubus fruticosus and its varieties, some of the latter having larger and more palatable fruits than others, differences which are appreciated in European local fruit-markets, but which we fail to utilize in specific wording, unless we pass into Jordanism,3 and indeed do no longer admit any fixity of species. The same unfortunate similar course was recently followed in a truly Jordianian4 style by a Russian author concerning the genus Mentha.5
May not any predilection of sheep for the spiny few leaved variety of Kochia villosa be due to particular constituents in sap according to soil? As regards the likely poison-properties of Zygophyllum and Goodia, they may show themselves only when pasture animals browse on these plants largely, not when they merely nip a bid6 now and then with other herbage.
Let me hope that you and your family are well and happy.
Regardfully your
Ferd. von Mueller.
Genisteae
Goodia lotifolia
Goodia medicaginea
Kochia aphylla
Kochia villosa
Laburnum
Leguminosae
Mentha
Phaseolus
Physostigma
Rubus fruticosus
Zygophyllum
Garden and field (Adelaide), vol. 10, March 1885, pp. 148.-50. The article is headed 'Australian shrubs suitable for fodder' and commences 'At a meeting of the Royal Society of South Australia, held on February 3, 1885, Mr. S. Dixon read an interesting paper upon "Some Indigenous Shrubs of South Australia Suitable for Cultivation as Fodder".'
The article begins with an acknowledgment of Tate's assistance 'in respect to much of the information contained in the paper'.
The French botanist A. Jordan was a notorious splitter of species.
Jordanian?
Probably Gandoger (1881). TL2 describes Gandoger as 'one of the greatest "splitters" ever'. However, although his Mentha paper appeared in a Russian Journal, Gandoger was French.
bit?
Please cite as “FVM-85-03-05,” 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