206 Indigenous Fibrous Plants. 



Before exhibiting tliese specimens to tlie Society^ I thought 

 it proper to bring them under the notice of our eminent 

 botanist^ Dr. Mueller^ more especially with the view of 

 ascertaining whether there existed in these colonies an 

 indigenous plant resembling, yet differing from, the common 

 English marsh-mallow, or whether the plant in question was 

 identical Avith that growing about Melbourne, because it 

 would be a very singular fact if valuable properties, existing 

 in a plant so familiar to the scientific men of Europe, 

 remained altogether undiscovered. JMoreover, it seemed to 

 me that, if the plant experimented on by Mr. Tolmer 

 were identical with the European, grave doubts might be 

 entertained as to the value of his discovery. Unfortunately, 

 in consequence of my not being in a position to submit a 

 leaf of the plant, a positive statement could not be hazarded 

 by Dr. Mueller, but it is almost sufiicient to be able to state 

 that he has little doubt of its being the Lavatera 23lebeja, a 

 native plant, extending from South Australia, through 

 Victoria, into New South Wales, and resembling the genuine 

 English marsh-mallow. The latter, it appears, has not yet 

 immigrated into Australia, the plant usually found here being 

 the British dwarf mallow. 



Dr. Mueller also informs me that the Lavatera i^leheja is 

 perennial, and may be obtained in considerable quantity 

 along the Murray and many of its tributaries, being besides 

 scattered over other parts of the colony. A perennial plant, 

 it may be observed, provided its growth is rapid, and admits 

 of a large crop being annually removed, appears to have its 

 relative advantages in a country possessing abundance of 

 land, and where tillage will in all probability be costly for a 

 long period to come. Moreover, the luxuriant growth of the 

 mallow in tracts of country which appear to be comparatively 

 useless for other purposes, but which nevertheless possess the 

 advantage of being adjacent to our greatest na-\agable rivers, 

 ought to be an inducement to test its value, directing special 

 attention to the quality and quantity of fibre of a yearns 

 growth, investigating the cultivable qualities of the plant 

 and its action on the soil ; also ascertaining how far the ex- 

 haustion occasioned by annual cropping may be supplied by 

 inundations or other available means of restoration. These 

 are important considerations ; for articles of which the con- 

 sumption is great, such as paper and rope, cannot be suffi- 

 ciently and uniformly supplied by the spontaneous action of 

 nature ; neither could a shruli, or a tree, which takes a long 



