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89.01.00c

Plant names

Preferred Citation:

Ferdinand von Mueller to Thomas Tabart, 1889-01 [89.01.00c]. 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/1880-9/1889/89-01-00c-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
Letter not found. For t he text given here, see Mercury (Hobart), 2 February 1889, p. 2 (B89.02.02). It is preceded by
A TROUBLESOME weed growing in many parts of Tasmania is attracting attention, and evidently requires systematic eradication. The Chief Inspector of Stock recently received a communication from the Kelso district inspector, accompanying a sample of the weed which grows there, and is locally designated Californian thistle and Bathurst burr. It grows freely, and, as this inspector says, is gradually taking possession. Mr. Tabart, the Chief Inspector, has been in communication with Baron Von Mueller, the Government Botanist of Melbourne, on the subject, who, in reply, states:
The thistle-like plant of which you sent me a specimen is a small flowered variety of
Centaurea Calitrapa

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2
Typesetter's error for Centaurea calcitrapa ?
the so-called star thistle. It is indigenous from Southern England to the countries at the Mediterranean Sea, but is long ago already immigrated as a weed in Australia, being thus recorded also as Tasmanian in the third volume of the "Flora Australiensis, 1886."
3
Typesetter's error for 1866. The reference is to Bentham (1862-78), vol. 3, p. 458.
As this troublesome weed flowers only once from the same root it can be subdued by cutting it before ripening seeds, but it is needful that the cut plants should at once be raked together and burnt, otherwise they may still ripen seeds while dying on the ground.
4
The text of the letter is followed by ' Farmers who see this plant spreading on their land will do well to accept the foregoing as a word in due season.' Other Tasmanian newspapers carried reports of the warning and the letter was reprinted in Melbourne (B89.04.07).