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90.00.00c

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Ferdinand von Mueller to the South Australian Agricultural Society, 1890 [90.00.00c]. 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/1890-6/1890/90-00-00c-final.odt>, accessed June 13, 2026

1
Letter not found. The text given here is from the South Australian register, 26 April 1890, p. 6. There was much discussion over the potential merits of the plant as a resource or whether it was a menace that should be declared a noxious weed, and many reports were made, many of which are summarized in the source article. The letter has been dated to 1890 on the basis that this is the latest year in which it could have written, but it may have been in the previous year: see South Australian register, 16 July 1889, p. 7, where the report of a meeting of the Central Branch of the SA Agricultural Bureau held on 15 July 1889 includes the following:
Mr. Goyder , Government Analyst, wrote as follows :— 'I have gone through the correspondence of the committee appointed by the Royal Agricultural Society to consider the properties of stinkwort, and conclude that there is very little chance of this plant being utilized commercially. A full chemical investigation of its properties and of the properties and uses of the products which might be derived from it would be very costly, and to be exhaustive should be entrusted to specialists who have the necessary apparatus for extracting and the means of determining the value of the different products; such specialists are not to be found in the colonies. The oil and resin might be extracted from a ton or two of the plants and sent to England to have their value determined. This might probably be done at a cost of from £10 to £20. Special apparatus would be required.
[Baron F. von Mueller, to whom a specimen of stinkwort was sent by our South Australian Agricultural Society through the National Agricultural Society of Victoria, gave a long report upon it. He said it was rightly sent as
Inula graveolens

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, which is a native on the coasts bordering the Mediterranean Sea, and annual in duration. Its advantages are so trifling in comparison with its disadvantages that it should at once be exterminated, or at least kept in check. If the plant was to be utilized in any way the oil perhaps might be distilled and used similarly to that of eringeron
2
Typesetter's error for erigeron?
or "Cobblers' Pegs." [E. viscosum Is used for driving away fleas and flies, and It is said, without truth, that stinkwort will do the same.]
3
Brackets in source.
The oil of eringeron is used as a diuretic and haemostatic for internal use. The mediaeval physicians employed the plant as a specific against the venom of vipers. (Old medical men declared that another species— Iunla Helenium
4
Typesetter's error for Inula?
or elecampane — was a certain specific against the bite of mad dogs.)
5
Parentheses in source.
The Baron thought there were many plants better suitable for use as green manures by ploughing under, and that for destroying termites the oil would be far too costly.]