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84.05.03a

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Ferdinand von Mueller to Charles Langtree, 1884-05-03 [84.05.03a]. 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/1880-9/1884/84-05-03a-final.odt>, accessed June 4, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from 'The Eucalyptus and "Rain Tree"', Argus, 13 May 1884, p. 7 (B84.05.04). It is introduced by
The following report on the reputed power of the eucalyptus tree to absorb water and of the "raintree" to condense into water the moisture of the air, has been received by Mr C W Langtree, acting secretary of the department of Mines and Water Supply from Baron von Mueller—
Melbourne, May 3 1884.
Sir, —I have the honour to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 30th April,
2
See C. Langtree to M, 30 April 1884 (in this edition as 84-04-30a).
conveying the request of the Honourable Alfred Deakin, minister of the department for Mines and Water Supply, to be informed of my view regarding the power of eucalypts to absorb water from the soil. The remarkable case recorded in The Argus of April 18th from The Times , is one of the many instances in which the enormous force of the eucalypts to draw moisture from ground beneath, has been clearly demonstrated; thus also a case quite similar to that above quoted of eucalyptus roots invading tanks even of strong construction, having come under the observation of T. Holdsworth, Esq., J.P., Sandhurst, on his own premises.
Indeed the widely recognised antimalarian value of eucalypts depends not only on the destructive effect of eucalyptus foliage through its oil on those micro-organisms, which set up miasmatic fermentation, but also much on the exsiccating power which is exercised by these lands of trees on the soil. In this respect they are almost as powerful as weeping willows, with this great difference and advantage, that this great dropping foliage causes no putrid decomposition but proves in a high degree antiseptic. The two remarkable properties just alluded to, together with the extraordinary celerity of growth, have rendered some kinds of eucalypts, especially E. globulus, among hardwood trees so widely famous; on this subject the literature is quite extensive now. In my own writings I have particularly alluded to these qualities in the Descriptive Atlas of the Eucalypts,
3
Eucalyptographia ; 9 of the 10 decades had been issued by April 1884. The use of E. globulu s to subdue 'miasmatic exhalations' is discussed in Decade 6 (in B80.13.14).
in a small volume of popular lectures edited by Capt. Ellwood Cooper, in San Francisco,
4
Ellwood Cooper, of the Santa Barbara College, California, reprinted several of Mueller’s works in 1876. These republications are bibliographically difficult. Two versions of Forest culture and Eucalyptus trees with identical title pages were produced, one with 236 pages (E. Cooper (1876)) and the other with 621 pages (E. Cooper (1876a)); some of Mueller's items were included in each and some included in the first were omitted from the second. See B76.07.04 - B76.07.07 and B76.13.11 – B76.13.19.
further in the opening address for the rural section in the Melbourne Social Science Congress of 1880,
5
B80.13.09.
and in various other casual publications. Moreover, we have records of the large quantity of aqueous fluid sucked up and concentrated even in desert lands by the roots of the mallee eucalypts. Should, however, departmental measures be under contemplation, by which through tree plantations near reservoirs, or perhaps along canals and natural water courses, the temperature in the immediate vicinity is to be lessened and strong currents of air are to be intercepted, with a view of reducing evaporation at water storage, then pines and other coniferous trees, especially such as are of comparatively quick growth and fit to ensure a dry chime, would be preferable for rearing, as they would withdraw very much less water from the soil than eucalypts, as their foliage is more umbrageous and therefore more cooling, while it is similarly antiseptic. The last edition of the Select Plants for Industrial Culture and Naturalisation
6
B81.01.04; an American edition was issued in late 1884.
(a work of which with advantage a new and enlarged Victorian edition might be brought out) would afford some advice.
As regards the "Rain-tree," mentioned in the Federal Standard of the 16th April,
7
No copy of the issue of the Federal standard (Chiltern, Vic) for this date has been located. The article was, however, cited elsewhere, e.g. Herald (Melbourne), 30 April 1884, p. 3, where the story was said to have been taken from the London weekly, Land and Water, and it was reported that the Water Supply Department had communicated with M, asking him whether what was said of the tree was correct. The original item was published in Land and water, 16 April 1881, p. 298.
I would beg to observe, that doubtless the
Albizzia Saman

Search for Albizzia Saman in

of tropical America (see Select Plants ,
8
B81.01.04.
p. 19) is meant. This tree was in late years brought prominently under notice by the director of the Botanic Garden of Jamaica.
9
G. S. Jenman.
It is particularly valuable as being one of the comparatively few which accommodate themselves even to brackish land; it would therefore be eligible also for our "saltbush country," especially as the pods can be utilised for cattle feed. Among congeneric plants it is less tardy in growth than many others; but it may prove shy to any frost, and would perhaps not readily thrive in any tracts of country where rain is very scanty, because this tree delights in regions where the usual rainfall is not less than 30in. annually. Plantations of the raintree would, in accordance with general climatic laws, reduce the temperature of the atmosphere and soil, particularly during summer-heat in the locality of growth, and such arboreta would aid therefore in condensing locally the aqueous vapour into watery fluid. Nevertheless, we could not well reckon on obtaining by means of limited tree plantations, however desirable such would be, any water supplies comparable to that securable by judicious storage operations, such as the Government has been carrying on these many years in various parts of the Victorian territory, though judicious tree-planting as an auxiliary measure for maintaining and augmenting water supply will also be recommendable in connexion with dams and weirs, particularly if such operations of planting or rearing trees are effected on an extensive scale; and here I may, perhaps, be allowed to add that local raising of eligible trees would economise even the yield from artesian wells, the feasibility of establishing such having very long ago been publicly advocated by many of us here, having more recently been practically demonstrated in this colony. and having in latest days received, even for the most arid portions of the country, such grand support by the splendid achievements through artesian borings in Central Australia, although there gained only by piercing to very great depth. —
I have the honour to be sir, your obedient servant,
FERD. VON MUELLER.