[Sweet Vernal Grass.—Cleveland, Lancefield. …1 Reply: The grass is a form of the Sweet Vernal, defined by Baron Von Mueller as Anthoxanthum odoratum. At there are no roots and the spike is yet young, it would not be readily recognised. It has, however, quite the Cumarin scent of the ordinary British grass. When this grass is young, cattle and sheep like it well enough, but they brows less on it when it gets older, and when other grasses are readily accessible, as they dislike too much of it on account of the strong scent. Nevertheless an admixture of the Anthoxanthum is always welcome on pastures and in hay.]
Anthoxanthum odoratum
The reply is preceded by a letter from the correspondent asking for the name and other details of an enclosed 'head and leaf of a grass growing very luxuriously (in this season) in certain paddocks at Lancefield. … [Stock] thrive splendidly upon it.'
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Sweet vernal grass', in 'The Farm', Leader (Melbourne), 2 November 1895, p. 9. Assuming that the reply would be published in the next available issue in this weekly newspaper, it is dated to 25 October 1895 as the likely earliest date it would have been sent.
Please cite as “FVM-95-10-25d,” 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