488 REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF AGRICULTURE. 
gredient of the “dry pastures” is the dry pods of the “bur clover” 
(Medicago denticulata). This hardy plant flourishes under difficulties 
that would discourage most other forage plants from even attempting to 
make a living. When in its season it disputes even the hardest trodden 
paths, roadsides, and pastures with such hardy weeds as the bird grass 
(Polygonum aviculare) and the yellow centaury (Centaurea solstitialis, 
Tocalote of the Mexicans). It lies close to the ground, with small leaves 
and_ flowers; but in time becomes noticeable from being crowded with 
its prickly pods, spirally rolled into pellets, whose hooked bristles cling 
tenaciously to the wool of sheep and impart to it the commercially un- 
profitable epithet of “‘burry.” But however objectionable from the wool- 
grower’s point of view, these burs are among the most substantial ingre- 
dients of the “ dry pastures,” and are eagerly picked up by all animals, from 
the hog to the horse. This bur-clover is among the many plants of 
European derivation which have become so naturalized over the largest 
part of the State that few think of them otherwise than as native weeds. 
The Argonauts of 1849 already found the hills waving with the wild oat 
(Avena fatua) yielding a wild hay which at that time was sold at fabu- 
lous prices, and even now continues to be held in high esteem. Two 
species of crane’s-bill (Hrodium cicutarium and moschatwm) are even more 
common here than in Southern Europe, and the first-named is esteemed 
as one of the most important natural pasture plants, being about the 
only green thing available to stock throughout the dry season, and eagerly 
cropped by them at all times. Its Spanish name of Alfilerilla (signify- 
ing a pin, and now frequently translated into “‘pin-weed”) shows that it 
is an old citizen, even if possibly a naturalized one. 
WEEDS. 
To that process of naturalization of Old-World plants familiar to man- 
kind, the California climate seems to be peculiarly adapted; for the 
commonest and most troublesome weeds of fields and roadsides are 
originally at home on the Mediterranean and Black Sea shores, and not 
usually found growing wild elsewhere. ‘Thus the colza or rape-seed, 
under the common names of white mustard and wild turnip, everywhere 
takes possession of fields and waste places. The same is true, to a less 
extent, of one or two species of mustard proper (Sinapis nigra and ad- 
pressa?) and of the hedge-mustard (Hrysimum officinale). Wven the 
garden radish (Raphanus sativus) has escaped from cultivation to become 
a troublesome weed, often forming large patches, of a delicate rose-tint, 
ina landscape otherwise yellow with mustard and native poppies (Lsch- 
scholtzia). 'The larger mustard, often growing so high as to hide from view 
a man on horseback, is a formidable weed in portions of the San Joaquin 
and Sacramento Valleys, covering whole sections of land as a thicket, 
through which man or beast penetrates with difficulty. While the 
plants above mentioned embrace those immigrants whose coming and 
displacement of the native vegetation has exerted an important influence 
upon the face of the landscape and the operations of agriculture, there 
are numerous other weeds which, locally, give considerable trouble to 
the husbandman and gardener. The pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis), the 
spurrey (Spergula arvensis), several Old-World chickweeds, the omni- 
present dog-fennel, hog-weed, or wild chamomile (Anthemis Cotula), and. 
among the grasses the soft chess or brome grass (Bromus mollis, not unfre- 
quently miscalled “ buffalo grass”), the annual spear grass (Poa annua), 
the darnel (Lolium temulentum), a numerous contingent of the Goose-foot 
family (Chenopodium album, Bonus Henricus, anthelminthicum, several 
