The correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller: Hay, Murrumbidgee ¶ ¶ I write from a far inland little township of New South Wales, after my return from the Lachlan River, where I wished particularly at this spring season to trace the minute annua...

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Physical location:

78.09.29a

Plant names

Atriplex halimoides
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Atriplex nummularium
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Atriplex vesicularia
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Chenopodium nitrariaceum
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Phormium tenax
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Salsolaceae
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Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to the Gardeners' Chronicle, 1878-09-29 [78.09.29a]. R.W. Home, Thomas A. Darragh, A.M. Lucas, Sara Maroske, D.M. Sinkora, J.H. Voigt and Monika Wells (eds), Correspondence of Ferdinand von Mueller, <https://vmcp.rbg.vic.gov.au/id//letters/1870-9/1878/78-09-29a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Foreign correspondence', Gardeners' chronicle, 14 December 1878 (B78.12.01). It is dated to 29 September 1879 by comparison with M to G. Bentham, 29 September 1878, also written from Hay, in which M also reports that he has just returned from the Lachlan River.

Hay, Murrumbidgee

I write from a far inland little township of New South Wales, after my return from the Lachlan River, where I wished particularly at this spring season to trace the minute annuals geographically, and where also I desired to examine the vegetation of the extensive "Saltbush plains," which spread from some portions of the Murrumbidgee to the Lachlan River. Several species of sustain horses and cattle, and particularly sheep, even when in seasons of drought other herbage as well as grasses may fail. Thus , , and various others are valued by pastoral settlers; but the two species which for hundreds of square miles, and sometimes almost exclusively, occupy the enormous sub-saline plains (which are often not bounded by any river at the horizon), are two dwarf species, namely,

Atriplex vesicaria, or A. vesicarium?

and A. halimoides, the former usually prevailing over the other, though both are most gregarious. Both are seldom over 2 feet high, resist the worst of droughts, and when eaten down by stock readily spring again. These two Atriplices deserve to be tried in other countries for pastoral purposes, especially on saline depressions, such as occur in the south-west of France, where also might be cultivated to advantage.

I have been able to obtain also many notes on southern plants, now for the first time shown to grow as far north as the Lachlan River. A few novelties were noted, but not many.

Ferd. von Mueller.