P^LOWERS OF THE FIELD 83 



be found at the right season on a farm near the pic- 

 turesque village of Finchingfield. 



But if weeds be a perennial nuisance to the farmer, 

 they are no less a source of constant annoyance to the 

 gardener. Gilbert White used to employ a " weeding 

 woman " at Selborne, in order, as he tells us, that his 

 garden might be neat and tidy against the arrival of 

 visitors ; and, indeed, in some years daily attention is 

 imperative if the rampant intruders are to be held 

 in check. After rain the borders quickly become 

 smothered with groundsel and veronica, and in some 

 districts with the annual mercury. But more trouble- 

 some still, because of the difficulty of eradicating 

 them, are the lesser convolvulus and the gout weed, 

 whose long, white, creeping roots will continue to 

 grow if the smallest particle be left in the soil. The 

 former of these truly pestiferous weeds is strangely 

 known among the market gardeners near Portsmouth 

 as " lilies " ; while the latter, as its name implies, 

 was formerly a famous remedy for the gout, and was 

 therefore doubtless cultivated in many gardens as a 

 medicinal herb. 



Still now and again some interesting plants appear 

 as " weeds " in gardens. Canary-grass and buck- 

 wheat, and the caper spurge, are not uncommon 

 visitors. A few specimens of the very rare finger- 

 glass {Digitaria humifusa, Pers.) appeared one year 

 in the writer's herbaceous border at Portchester, and 

 for several years in succession the almost equally rare 

 bristle-grass {Setaria viridis, Beauv.). In another 

 garden in the same parish the white goose foot 

 {Chenopodiuni ficifoliuin, Sm.) made its appearance 

 in 1893: this species had never been noticed in 

 Hampshire before; but in the following season it 



