Ferdinand von Mueller

1

Letter not found. The text given here is from 'Diseases in elm and other forest tress', Weekly times, 27 June 1885, Farmers gazette supplement, p. 4 (B85.06.08). It was introduced by 'The following is the reply of Baron von Mueller to Mr. A. Dou gla s s, of Geelong, who communicated with the former touching t h e attack of grubs on elms a n d other fore s t trees: — '. The attention of readers was drawn to this letter in an editorial comment on p. 1 of the supplement.

I am well aware o f the danger o f elms being lost through boring insects, and that thus whole shade lines of f ully up- grown tre es may become destroyed, as Euro pean sad experience on this s ubj e ct has repeatedly proved. Indeed, mo r e than twenty-eight years ago, when I commen ce d to plant the first shade lines of trees in V i c toria, I bore these facts well in mind, and had on this subject a correspondence wi t h the late Mr. Edward Wilson,

2

See M to E. Wilson. October 1859 (in this edition as 59.10.00d) for M's ordering street trees through Wilson.

who was then in England, and took great interest in tree-planting also, while aiding with Mr. Y o uI so prominently in Australian pi s cicu l tu r e. About that tim e also there was much l os s among elms in England. Ther e , as in ma ny other parts o f Europe, the larv ae of the ' goat moth' (Cassus liguiperdo)

3

Typesetter's misreading of Cossus ligniperda?

a n d a small beetle (Sco l ytus de s tr u ctor) are the main borers of the elm, which not rarely succumbs to their ravages. One remedy wo u ld be the encouragement of wood-pe c king birds to in c reas e here, by letting our few native species alone and unmolested, and by introducing the best kind s of foreign birds of this sort ; t h e ' shanghai'

4

Australian term for a hand-held catapult.

and the re c kles s use of the sporting gun to be suppressed by police vigilance, bird-protecting clubs, and heavy fines any where. In France, trees commencing to suffer from the goat moth are (on the original recommendation of the great entomologist, Latreille), surrounded at t h e stem base w it h a mixture of c lay and c owdu n g , by whi c h mea n s the larva of the c assu s , which are hatched fr o m eggs deposited at the bottom of the stem, are prevented from penetrating the stem. Whether a n y sim i l ar means are of avail, to prevent th e larg e grubs of the eucalyptus moth, endoxyla eucalypti (which bores not o nl y t he stems of our bl ue -gum tree s, but also that of some ot her e ucalypts and of our wattle), from getting access to elms, requires to be ascertained. Trees of healthy growth in well-adapted soil would be far less liable to the boring of the endoxyla than sickly trees, planted i n more or less unsuitable soil and subject to stagnant moi s ture at their roots. Lingering blue-gum t ees, when bored by the endoxyla, I hav e o f te n saved by starting them again into vigorous growth throug h surrounding th e base o f the stem w it h an earth seat, covered with sods o f I n dia n couch-grass, it b e ing also n ecessary und er any circumstances to remove old and loose pieces of the outer ba r k regularly from the stem, to prevent insects from h arbouri n g under such shelter. A s the atta c k on your elms seems a new one here, it would be necessary to initiate experiments as to the best means of prote c ti n g these E n g li sh trees under altered c ir c umstance s in this colony. I should like to s ee a sample of the larva, pup a , and perfect in sec t destroying your elms there. Some kinds of our eucalyptus are also atta c ked by beetles, as borers into the wood, the two most formidable, as identified by Mr. French,

5

Charles French Snr.

being Hapa t esus nirt us

6

Typesetter's error for Hapatesus hirtus?

and Phora c anth a nicusyus ,

7

Typesetter's error for Phoracantha tricuspis? See French (1891-1911), part 5, pp. 71-3.

particularly the latter. The dis cu ssion of this subject brings me back to my original recommendations, made more than thirty years ago to adopt for street lines only such trees as are k n own not to be readily subject to diseases, whether arising from insects or from fungi or otherwise. Thus many pines are also exempt from parasitic atta c ks. The native red-gum tree (E. ro o trata

8

Typesetter's error for E. rostrata?

), with its antiseptic wood, is also far preferable to many other eu caly ptus for lasting avenues, and many other trees deserve consideration, c on c er n ing whi c h my inexpensive work on 'Select plants for Industrial culture and naturalisation '

9

B76.12.04; other, renamed, editions had been published in India, NSW and the United States.

might be c ons u lted, whi c h is obtainable at the Government printing office in Melbourne, an d o f which an enlarged edition , by the approval of the Hon. Graham B er ry, will appear towards the end of thi s year.

10

B85.12.03.

P. S — It might be tried to give the affected portions of the st e m s of your e lms a c oating of c oal-tar.

11

There is no valediction before the PS in the source.