From William Clarson to Ferdinand von Mueller   22 Mar 1889

Longerenong Agl¹ College

Dooen,² 22/3/89

My dear Baron von Mueller

Many thanks for your enclosures of seeds of the varieties of Eucalyptus of which tree I purpose having a collection of such as will suit this district, as also a pinetum embracing all varieties of the Coniferae.

I am getting Professor Brown,³ who has the experimental farm under his direction, to plot off a piece of land on which to grow permanently a specimen breadth of the salsolaceous and other plants rapidly becoming extinct on the sheep runs and farms in these and similar regions.

I enclose you another little specimen of the Kochiae, as you enquired whether the plants here were shrubby or herbaceous.

I found a plant yesterday on the railway reserve fully six feet high with a ligneous stem 4 in. in diameter

With kind regard

yours most truly

Wm Clarson

P.S. I am amazed at the unfavorable conditions under which these salsolaceous plants thrive. The embankment round a water dam here is formed of compact intractable clay taken from a great depth, without a trace of sand and no organic matter, and yet these Kochias and Atriplex form a dense mass of herbage without another plant of any kind.

W.C.

Atriplex

Coniferae

Eucalyptus

Kochia