To Pier Saccardo   15 September 1895

15/9/95

 

Allow me to ask, dear Professor Saccardo, whether in Italy any further measures are adopted against the devastations from Agaricus melleus, than those indicated by Hartig Kirchner, Franck and Tubeuf in their respective volumes.1 Perhaps minor publications exist giving other means of coping with this destructive fungus; and it is also difficult here at the antipodes to know whether perhaps in journals new remedies have recently be2 recommended.

A. melleus occurs here particularly in forests, and if rural plantations are formed in clearings of woodlands, then on some places the mycelium will destroy through strangling and sucking the roots destroy many kinds of trees, such as Juglans, Castanea &c &c. I shall therefore be most thankful to you for any special information which you may be able to afford from Italy.3

Can I send you anything specially from here.

With regardful remembrance your

Ferd. von Mueller

 

Agaricus melleus

Castanea

Juglans

1
M is most likely referring to Hartig (1889), especially pp. 179-84; Kirchner (1890); Frank (1880); and Tubeuf (1895), especially pp. 471-6. There are copies of all four works in the library, Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.
2
been?
3
In 'The honey coloured fungus', Leader (Melbourne), 11 January 1896, p. 12, it was reported that 'by last mail Professor Saccardo, of Padua, the greatest mycologist of the present time, writes to the Government Botanist that it is found out that the Agaricus melleus destroys mulberry trees there' (letter not found).

Please cite as “FVM-95-09-15,” 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 26 April 2024, https://epsilon.ac.uk/view/vonmueller/letters/95-09-15