68 



Another wide-spread alien is said to have valuable fattening 

 qualities. I allude to the wire weed (Polygonum ayiculare). I 

 cannot speak from my own knowledge. The plant is certainly in 

 more than sufficient abundance for ample experiments to be made. 



There are a number of other small aliens, such as chickweed, 

 groundsel, speedwell, and gromwell, which now only cumber the 

 ground, but which would soon be turned to account if our hedges 

 and woodlands were filled, as they might be, with singing birds 

 imported from home. These would gladden our hearts with 

 their cheerful music, and help largely in keeping down noxious 

 weeds. It would be almost worth while to introduce the goldfinch 

 and give it its liberty here, to aid in checking the inroads of the 

 numerous thistles. Its fondness for their seed is a well-known fact. 

 Indeed, its scientific name of Carduelis is meant to betoken this, 

 the Latin name of a thistle being Carduus. _ In England they may 

 be seen, in open down countries, where thistles most abound, in 

 companies of a dozen or so, climbing among the stalks, and 

 peering into the spiny heads in search of their favourite food. 

 The species most frequented by them perhaps is that which we mis- 

 name " Californian." 



The Aliens have added but little to the ornamentation of our 

 island. The Furze (Ulex europeus) is handsome when in flower ; 

 and there are few weeks in the year, when it may not be seen. 

 Hateful too as is the briar in the eyes of the cultivator, no one can 

 deny, that its delicate pink flowers give a loveliness to our paddocks 

 and hedge-rows which they certainly would not possess, had the 

 detestable bush never been introduced ; its very abundance adds to 

 its value from this point of view. The leaves and young shoots too 

 are deliciously scented, and have earned for it in England (where, 

 by the way, it is exceedingly rare) the fitting name of sweet briar. 

 The marigold is conspicuous in waste spots, and the purple scabious 

 makes a show on dry banks, or in neglected places. The large blue 

 flowers of the chicory and the periwinkle vnl\ probably some day 

 enliven meadow or woodland, but at present they have not dared 

 to venture far beyond the boundaries of the garden. There is 

 one tiny plant which is always welcome to Englishmen, for 

 none perhaps brings "home "more forcibly before him; I mean 

 the pink-tipped daisy. This too is among our Aliens ; but it 

 appears to be slow in accommodating itself to its new surround- 

 ings, reluctant to leave cultivated ground, and only occasionally 

 occurring in paddocks mixed with English grasses. 



Strange to say, Tasmania already produces a native Daisy, difier- 

 ing indeed both as to genus and species from its British proto- ■ 

 type, but so similar in outward appearance that it requires 

 a practised eye to tell them apart. In fact, the earliest investigators 

 of Australian botany were completely deceived, and fancied they 

 saw in the stranger the identical plant which whitens the grass 

 plots of old England with its familiar flowers. The stranger, how- 

 ever, in point of fact, belongs to a distinct genus {Brachycome), 

 and is rightly named decipiens. 



Speaking generally, our Aliens, when once they have escaped 

 from the trammels of civilization, appear to make good use of their 

 freedom, and may be traced over large areas of country. No doubt, 

 like their relatives in the lands from which they have sprung, they 



