["Grazier"—Baron von Mueller identifies the white flowering weed you send as the Lepidium draba, a kind of wild cress, indigenous to Southern Europe, Northern Africa, and Western Asia, from whence it invaded this colony some years ago, as pointed out in Baron von Mueller's Key to the System of Victorian Plants.1 Pasture animals disdain the herb, and to cope with it is not easy, as the roots are perennial. It would be advisable to turn over the soil where it abounds, after previous burning off if that be possible and to sow on the place such grasses, clovers and other feed plants as thrive best in the vicinity, whether native or introduced species. The expense and trouble will be well compensated by the greater subsequent thriftiness of the meadows and the suppression of a most noxious weed.]
Lepidium draba
B88.11.02, p. 531 in list of immigrated and naturalized plants.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The Yeoman. Answers to correspondents', Australasian (Melbourne), 3 November 1894, p. 769. Assuming that the reply would be published in the next available issue in this weekly newspaper, it is dated to 26 October 1894 as the likely earliest date it would have been sent.
Please cite as “FVM-94-10-26,” 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