PAPERS READ. 



Plants which have become Naturalized in N". S. Wales. 



By W. Woolls, Ph.D., F.L.S. 



As, on several occasions, I have given partial lists of the plants 

 which have become naturalized in N. S. Wales, I propose now to 

 enumerate all such species as have been observed, and to arrange 

 them systematically according to the plan pursued by Baron 

 Mueller in his Census of the Australian Plants. There is a great 

 difficulty in determining, in some instances, whether certain species 

 are indigenous or introduced ; and as years roll on and native 

 plants disappear in the progress of cultivation, the difficulty will 

 be increased. In the preface to the Census, the Baron observes : — 

 " The lines of demarcation between truly indigenous and more 

 recently immigrated plants can no longer in all cases be drawn 

 with precision • but whereas Alchemilla vulgaris and Veronica 

 serpilli 'folia were found along with several European-Carices in 

 untrodden parts of the Australian A lps during the authors earliest 

 explorations, .4. arvensis and V. peregrina were at first only 

 noticed near settlements. The occurrence of Arabis glabra, Geum 

 urbanum, Agrimonia Eupatoria, Eupatorium cannabinum, Car- 

 pesium cernuum and some others may therefore readily be disputed 

 as indigenous, and some cpiestions concerning the nativity of 

 various of our plants will probably remain for ever involved in 

 doubts." Whilst it must be admitted, then, that there is some 

 degree of uncertainty in dealing with species supposed to be of 

 exotic origin, especially such plants as those to which the Baron 

 refers, there are many which are known to have been introduced 

 at particular times, and under particular circumstances, some 

 having been introduced for industrial purposes, and others having 

 sprung up amidst crops raised from foreign seed ; whilst the great 

 majority of those to which the name of weeds is given, have been 



