The tall herb is the Sium angustifolium, a native of Europe and Western Asia, and also not rare in ditches and on watercourses in Britain, where it is popularly but inaptly called water parsnip, being deleterious. Indeed, poison cases from this plant, and the allied Sium lotifolium,1 have repeatedly arisen in the home countries. I noticed plants of this species in the forties of the century as Australian,2 but they likely became immigrated from Europe originally. As the plant is perennial and stands usually In water, it is not easily eradicated, but it should be cut, particularly before seeding, so as to prevent its further dissemination. When in autumn good grasses and herbage fail, pasture animals would resort to any other plants, and thus feed extensively on the sium with fatal results. If a veterinary surgeon should not be at hand, it would be advisable, if poisoning cases from sium are early noticed, to apply stimulants to the affected animals, the sium poison being narcotic. Blisters would also aid recovery.
Sium angustifolium
Sium lotifolium
Typesetter's error for Sium latifolium?
MEL 294835 is a specimen dated August 1850 collected by M in South Australia.
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The Yeoman. Answers to correspondents', Australasian (Melbourne), 21 March 1896, p. 539 (B96.03.06). Assuming that the reply would be published in the next available issue in this weekly newspaper, it is dated to 13 March 1896 as the likely earliest date it would have been sent. The letter is introduced by '"Yanakie" (Foster).—Baron von Mueller favours us with the following description of your plant: —".
Please cite as “FVM-96-03-13a,” 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