["Cockatoo."—The plant sent by you is one of the sundews, and is identified by Baron von Mueller as "Drosera whilarkeri."1 All the sundews exude an acrid sap, which is so powerful that when placed on the skin of a person it will cause a blister. In Europe when plants of this or allied species abound on the moors, they become dangerous to sheep. The Australian sundews are to be found in the finest pastures, but not being very numerous, they do little or no harm. It is only where they become predominant that evil results to sheep and lambs follow. Unless the sundews are extremely plentiful in your pastures, you must look to some other cause for the death of your lambs.]
Drosera whilarkeri
Typesetter's error for Drosera whitackeri? M used that spelling in B79.06.04, but gave it, correctly, as D. whittackeri in both his 1883 and 1886 censuses, B83.03.03 and B86.06.03.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The Yeoman. Answers to correspondents', Australasian (Melbourne), 5 October 1895, p.629. Assuming that the reply would be published in the next available issue in this weekly newspaper, it is dated to 27 September 1895 as the likely earliest date it would have been sent.
Please cite as “FVM-95-09-27,” 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