BY F. M. BAILEY, F.L.S. 29 



be seen now and again on the watercourses around Brisbane, and 

 on many of the farms along the Brisbane Eiver. P. lanceolata 

 is not at all uncommon in somewhat the same localities. The 

 Pimpernel (A nagallis arvensis, Linn.) meets one's eye at many of 

 the old camps in southern Queensland. The blue variety is 

 frequently to be seen about Brisbane. Warmth of climate does 

 not affect this species, which is as abundant in Tasmania, Victoria, 

 and South Australia, ax it is here. It seems to follow the footsteps 

 of man quite closely. As one of the early colonists of South 

 Australia, I can bear testimony to the fact that it was with 

 the grass Poa annua, Linn., among the first European genera 

 to become naturalized in the country. It is rather difficult to 

 explain how it has managed to spread so far and widely, for one 

 never meets with it under cultivation, and it is not in Australia, 

 as in England a favourite with the children. When even educated 

 persons are informed that it is the pimpernel of the poets and the 

 poor man's weather-glass of the village herbalist, they look with 

 astonishment at the little stranger, most of them deeming it quite 

 unworthy of its popularity. Yet its spiral vessels form some of 

 the most useful and instructive microscopic objects we have in 

 vegetable life, and it has one other point of distinction — that of 

 being the only genus of the order Primulaceaa which has become 

 naturalized in Australia. 



Pamfiora edulis, Sims, or the common passion-fruit, sometimes 

 known as the small grenadilla, is one of the commonest climbing 

 plants of our scrubs. This is an exception to the rule that 

 introduced plants are generally noxious weeds. A more acceptable 

 case of acclimatization could hardly be found, as its fruits are 

 abundant, ripen readily, and prove most acceptable to the traveller. 



Of the order Verbenaceae we have naturalized one or two most 

 troublesome weeds. One is the huge, rambling prickly bush, 

 Lantana camera, Linn., of tropical America. It has spread to an 

 alarming extent, and forms an impenetrable thicket on the banks 

 of streams, deserted farms, and the edges of scrubs. It is equally 



