Melbourne
11/10/74
Th. Ware Esqr,
Acting Under Secretary, &c &c
Sir.
In reply to your communication from the Secretary of the Lands Department, received
this day,
I have the honor to inform you, that the small oblong or cylindrical tubers, marked
as "wild Onions" and transmitted without flowers and fruits, are those of
(which again can hardly be distinguished from those of D. longifolia and D. sulphurea.)
These however cannot have caused the death of the child, as was supposed according
to the brief memorandum, which accompanies these roots, in as much as the tubers of
terrestrial Orchids yield as a rule simply mucilaginous principles without noxious
property.
I regard it most likely, that the local vernacular name "Wild Onions" refers collectively
to several kinds of small globular native tubers, which can be converted into food;
but that in this instance the unfortunate child gathered those of the Sundew herb,
of which indeed simultaneously a specimen was sent without roots. The particular species
of Sundew-herb, submitted to me, is
. It is one of several kinds, occurring within the boundaries of our colony; they
are all possessed of a poisonous saps like those of other countries, and their acridity
is so great as to afford an epispastic in Surgery. This poisonous principle extends
to the roots; hence it was probably this Drosera, but not the Diuris, which caused
the sad death of the child at Albury.
Pasture-animals here and in other countries have succumbed to the Drosera-poison;
but no instance is on record, according to which any of these Droseras have proved
fatal to human beings. This may readily be accounted for by the circumstance, that
not all Droseras have tuberous roots, such as children in unguarded playfulness would
gather. The poison in the Drosera-sap is not likely of an alkaloid or otherwise fixed
form, but belongs probably to the volatile or otherwise not crystalline poisons, which
to investigate requires the most complicated processes in chemical analysis, often
involving very protracted research. For any kinds of toxicologic experiments I have
no longer (since many months) my laboratory, nor its votes, its apparatus and its
chemicals. Neither could poison plants or any other remarkable kinds of our native
plants be illustrated since the last five years for general information and recognition,
in as much as the votes of my Department became so reduced since those years, that
the further issue of the lithograms became an impossibility.
In conclusion I beg respectfully to suggest, that in all similar cases, when my professional
information is needed, the
whole
correspondence may be submitted to my Department, as was customary on all former
occasions, because it must be obvious, that all the collateral circumstances concerning
the action of poison plants (or any other kinds of plants under investigation) must
be taken into consideration, when the nature of any particular poison or other property
is to be reported on.
I have the honor to be,
Sir, your obedient servant
Ferd von Mueller.
