lo Jan.. 1911-] The Weeds of Victoria. 31 



THE WEEDS OF VICTORIA. 



Alfred ]. Ewart, D.Sc, Ph.D., F.L.S., Government Botanist, and Pro- 

 fessor of Botany and Plant Physiology in the Melbourne University. 



Introduction. 



. It is proposed from time to time to issue the information collected in 

 regard to important weeds with a view ultimately of including this matter 

 in a second edition of the Weeds of Victoria. It is also proposed to 

 continue the issue of plates of any additional plants which may be pro- 

 claimed, as well as to prepare similar plates of a few of the more im- 

 portant weeds, which, although highly dangerous or obnoxious, it has for 

 various reasons not been considered advisable to proclaim. It may, in fact, 

 be stated that it is only very rarely that proclamation is advisable in the 

 case of annual weeds, for these do not usually damage the land in the 

 serious way that many deeply rooting perennials do. Freely seeding 

 annuals are practically impossible to suppress completely, and before the 

 mechanism of the Act could be brought into play, they would in many cases 

 have died down and disappeared. In such cases more is to be done by 

 the spread of information as to the hidden damage which such plants do, 

 than by an impossible attempt to enforce their complete destruction. 



When the tim.e is ripe for the issue of a .second edition, the plates in 

 the present issue will be used as illustrations to accompany the original 

 text in its amended and expanded form, so that the second edition will not 

 supersede the first one, but will act as a companion to it. The notes in 

 the present series will naturally appear at fir.st in a more or less disjointed 

 form, but in some cases, it is important that the knowledge attained should 

 be made immediately available, particularly where later information cor- 

 lects or modifies that previously given. 



COMMON BARTSIA. 



Bartsia lati folia, Sibth. and Sm. 



This little weed belongs to the natural order Sirophulariacccc, an order 

 which includes several plants which are parasitic more or less completely 

 on the roots of grasses, and are therefore not only useless as fodder, but 

 are actually injurious to pastures. Three species of the genus Bartsia are 

 naturalized in Victoria. They are Bartsia viscosa, L., '' Sticky Bartsia " ; 

 Bartsia Trixago, 1.., " Trixago Bartsia"; and Bartsia lati folia, Sibth. 

 and Sm., "Common Bartsia." 



It is this last plant which is the commonest and most widely spread in 

 Victoria, and which, of late years, appears to be steadily increasing in 

 pastures. It was originally a native of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and was 

 first recorded in 1887, although probably introduced long before this. Its 

 seeds, which an- extremely small and light, are often found in samples 

 of grass seeds, and it was probably with imported gra.ss seed that the plant 

 was first introduced. Its seeds are so small tiiat they are easily rarrivd 

 by the wind, altiiongh without any specially developed wing, pappus or 

 parachute mechanism. In addition, the seeds will float on water for a 

 time and can I)e carried down slopes by lieavy rains. 'I'he most tVrtile 

 source of spread, however, lies undoubtedly in the readiness with which 

 its minut<' stn-ds pass undetected in s.miples of grass seed. 



As this plant is spreading with great rapidity to new districts and is 

 very abundant in many of the oldrr settled districts, it was considered 

 advisable to carrv out some experiments on its suppression at Box Hill, on 



