Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Timber and fruit diseases', Age (Melbourne), 16 November 1895, p. 7 (B95.11.02). The item was reprinted in Record (South Melbourne), 30 November 1895, p. 2 (B95.11.01), with some apparently accidental omissions, where it was introduced as follows:

Some credit is due to the Government Botanist for drawing public attention to an insidious disease hitherto unrecognised here arising from the honey-colored mushroom (Agaricus melleous) well-known for more than one hundred years in Europe and occurring also in North America and Australia, possibly introduced there. It is remarkable that among more than a thousand different species of Agaricus, only this one, unless it be one other, spins out widely under the ground a webby substance to suck nutriment from the roots of trees and perhaps other plants. On a rotten eucalyptus trunk a great many different kinds of mushrooms and other fungs may grow; but they are mostly the sequence not the cause of the decay of the tree, just as on other decaying substances many sorts of fungacious plants will find a congenial matrix for existing. The eucalyptus may be proof against this Agaricus, but that has yet to be found out. Anyhow it has been demonstrated beyond doubt that various trees succumb under this unsuspected pernicious mushroom. If particular insects or oppossums eat off the foliage of eucalyptus trees, and thereby cause their dying off for want of respiratory organs, that would be clear at a first glance. The communities in Australia are indebted therefore to Baron Von Mueller for pointing out how to look further for causes of losses in our forests and orchards. We now give the letter which called forth these remarks:—

Sir, —

Re your excellent report on the above subject,

2

See 'Timber and fruit tree diseases. An important discovery', Age, 15 November 1895, p. 6. The item is a report of an interview with M by the horticultural correspondent of the Leader, a weekly sister paper of the Age, also printed in Leader, 16 November 1895, p. 8. It was reprinted widely, for example, Clarence and Richmond examiner (Grafton, NSW), 26 November 1895, p. 8; Queenslander, 30 November 1895, p. 1024).

please find herewith the exact wording of what Professor Thomas Meehan said in the last Gardeners' Monthly

3

Meehan's item was not printed by the Age; see the report 'Root fungus in trees', Meehan 's monthly, vol. 5 (1895), p. 117.

concerning his opinion on the cause of what he calls peach yellows and its treatment with hot water, which will destroy the mycelium of Agaritus

4

Typesetter's error for Agaricus ?

melleus when reaching it half cooled, while the roots of the tree would not likely suffer. I am well aware that in North America what is generally called the peach yellows has been traced to various causes, and several maladies may be there confused under that name. I cannot claim to have contributed towards the elucidation of the subject; but as Agaritus melleus, the honey colored mushroom, which is recognised as a good edible species, is occurring in four of the Australian colonies, I wish merely to suggest as a preliminary that in our forests and orchards the occurrence of this mushroom should be noted and measures be taken against it. The wide subject of plant diseases, here ably watched under the Agricultural department for insects by Mr. C. French,

5

Charles French Snr.

and for fungi by Mr. M'Alpine, has such an extensive literature that probably observers before Professor Meehan may have made known the dangers arising from Agaritus melleus and the similarly acting Trametes radiciperda, from which momentary forgetfulness I called T. ligniperda.

6

In the interview for the Leader; see note 2 above. Tramates ligniperda not in Index Fungorum ( http://www.indexfungorum.org/names/Names.asp , accessed 25 July 2016).

The application of boiling water to the soil as a fungicide was new to me till Professor Meehan's last monthly arrived. Professor Frank, of Berlin, in a letter to me by last weekly mail,

7

Letter not found.

mentions that it has been found preferable to plant other trees, such as will grow in very poor soil — for instance, Robinia Porendacacia

8

Typesetter's error for Robinia pseud o acacia ?

— in places where the Scotch fir and larch succumb from the Agaritus melleus than to cope with this almost irrepressible fungus. It is possible that in our forests an agaritus, allied to A. melleus, does mischief. Nor did I wish to imply by conversational remarks of mine that patches of dead eucalyptus trees observable in some of our forests could be connected in all instances with attacks from the honey colored mushroom; indeed I have given in my extensive work on the eucalyptus trees the several causes from insects and other agencies which operate in destroying spontaneously eucalypts. It would, however, be well if stumps in a state of decay were uprooted, and, as well as rotting stems on the ground, be burnt off.

15th November