Aug. 2, 1920.] 



Agricultural Gazette of N.S.W. 



571 



STUDENT'S SCORE CARD. CLYDESDALE STALLION— con^wMed. 



The Tenacity of Prickly Pear Seedlings. 



Readers of the Agricultural Gaze'te will perhaps remembei' a short article in 

 the issue of February, 1919, Avhich drew attention to the manner in which 

 the seeds of prickly pear are carried by emus, and how they germinate in 

 the masses in emu droppings. The seedlings illustrated in the Gazette of 

 that date have since provided very convincing evidence of the persistent 

 vitality of the pest. After the photographs were taken for those illustrations, 

 the specimens were allowed to lie in a glass tray in the room of the 

 Government Printer's artist, entirely neglected at first, except that on 

 perhaps two or three occasions the dregs of a cup of tea were thrown over 

 them. As their tenacity began to arouse interest, however, they were left 

 severely alone, and for long over twelve months were without a drop of 

 moisture. Their first healthy green shoots as they failed, put forth at the 

 tip smaller second shoots, and then from the end of these second, third tiny 

 shoots — thickly protected with spines— appeared, and finally withered off. 



On 27th May of the present year it was observed that all the seedlings 

 but one were dead ; it was not until the end of June that the whole were 

 solemnly pronounced to be dead — more than eighteen months after they had 

 been germinated for the purpose of the illustrations of February, 1919. 



With such a capacity for existence without moisture, even in the seedling 

 stage, is it any wonder that the pear defies all ordinary efforts at control, or 

 that it spreads so steadily and irresistibly 1 



