540 



Journal of Agriculture. 



[9 Sept., 1907. 



PatJis and Roadsid cs .---Along the borders of (paths the weed does no 

 very great harm and forms a pleasant and pretty harbinger of spring. 

 If seeding is prevented bv cutting the flowers, or by passing a hoe through 

 the leaves and young flower stalk, an inch or so below the ground in 

 August or September, the plants are kept under and prevented from 

 increasing or spreading. Along the hard borders of broad stock roads the 

 sod should be turned bv ploughing either once in July, or in May and 

 September. It would pay in most cases to allow the neighbouring land 

 owners to take in the useless breadth of most of these roads on condition 

 of keeping them clean from weeds. Roadside tree planting of evergreens 

 is also of use. Romitlea will not grow beneath closely planted Acacias, 

 and such planting would add greatlv to the beauty and comfort of many 

 of our bare countrv roads. All factors which loosen the soil, enrich it in 

 humus and cut off light in winter time, aid in keeping down the weed. 

 Pigs are of some use in rooting up and eating the corms, but methods of 

 this kind are always more or less untidy and patchy ways of cleaning land. 



THE PROCLAIMED PLANTS OF VICTORIA. 



{Continued from page 498.) 



Alfred J. Ewart, D.Sc., Ph.D., F.L.S., Government Botanist; and 

 J . R. Tovey, Herbarium Assistant. 



St. Barnaby's Thistle. 



Centaurca solstitialis, Linn. {Compositce.) 

 A stiff, erect annual, one to two feet high, with few branches, and 

 covered with a white cottony wool. Radical leaves pinnatifid (like a 

 feather) ; upper leaves small and linear, decurrent in long, narrow wings 

 along the stem. Flower-heads solitary at the ends of the branches, 

 nearly globular; the innermost bracts ending in a small shining appendage; 

 the intermediate ones in a long spreading prickle, with one or two small 

 ones at its base; the outermost usually with only a few small, palmate 

 prickles. Florets of a bright yellow. Fruiting heads with a soft white 

 pappus. 



An introduction from Southern Europe. It should be dug out with a 

 hoe or mattock before the seeds mature, piled and burnt. It often flowers 

 after cutting if fairly old and left too long. 



Proclaimed for the Shire of Wodonga, April, 1899. 



