176 Journal of Agricultiire. [9 March, 1908. 



THE PROCLAIMED PLANTS OF VICTORIA. 



{Continued from fage 80.) 



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

 J. R. Tovey, Herbarium Assistant. 



Paterson's Curse, or Purple Bugloss. 



Echium violaccnm , Linn. Boraginea. 



An annual or biennial ; stem 1 to 3 feet high, erect or ascending, 

 diffusely branched. Radical leaves lanceolate, stalked, the stem-leaves 

 spreading obtuse, cordate and sometimes dilated at the base. Flowers 

 showv, dark blue-purple, in numerous one-sided spikes, forming a long 

 terminal curved panicle, corolla often an inch long; the narrow part of 

 the tube very short, spreading into a broad campanulate throat, with a very 

 oblique limb, the lower lobes rather longer than the longest stamens. 



An introduction from Southern Europe. It is not injurious to stock, 

 and is considered to be a very fair pasture plant in its young state, but 

 when the plant matures, the fiower-stalk is very rough and hairy, so that 

 stock do not touch it, and when it seeds and dies off, all the grass is killed 

 underneath, hence the ground is left quite bare. It should be hoed up 

 before it seeds, piled and burnt. 



Proclaimed for the Shires of Towong (1904) and Maldon (1908). 



THIRD PROGRESS REPORT ON VITICULTURE IN 



EUROPE. 



F . de Castdla. 

 Viticulture in Portugal. 



I have the hooour to re[X)rt as follows on the result of my inquiries 

 in Portugal. I arrived at Oporto, from London, on 30th September. 

 After a couple of days, lost through my being laid up with a severe attack 

 of influenza, I presiented the letters I had brought with me from London 

 to the different wine firms at Villa Nova de Gaia, the suburb just across 

 the river and outside the " Octroi" boundarv of OportO', where the wine 

 merchants have their lodges or armazens. Villa Nova is thel centre of 

 the Port Wine trade of the world. I was very well received and invited 

 to visit numerous vineyards in the Alto Douro by the merchants to whom 

 I had introductions, who either own vineyards there, or who make arrange- 

 ments with owners for the purchase of their crop. Mr. Grant, British 

 Consul at Oporto, also gave me much valuable assistance. 



I then proceeded to the Alto Douro, the true " Port " country 

 situated some 50 miles up the Douro from Oporto, near which town no 

 Port is made. I spent a fortnight in the Alto Douro during which time 



