74 VITALITY OF SEEDS. [Murch, 



The occupier removed the soil to the depth of three or four inches 

 for a space of about two perches^ when there appeared in the 

 summer following a number of our native plants which covered 

 the denuded spot. They grew most luxuriantly, pleased with 

 their release from so long a captivity. 



The following plants were enumerated growing on that spot : — 

 Lychnis vesperiina, Arenaria serpyllifolia, Potentilla argentea, 

 Lycopsis arvensis, Anagallis arvensis, Polygonum Persicaria, P. 

 Convolvulus, Viola arvensis. All these plants grow in arable fields 

 in the neighbourhood ; the question is, did those seeds remain 

 ever since this field was cultivated, or have from time to time 

 found their way there by other means is a question not to be 

 answered ; if they remained ever since the field was last culti- 

 vated, it must have been more than half a century, which is not 

 improbable. 



The arable fields have selected a peculiar Flora of their own — 

 obtrusive immigrants — from our own and foreign lands, and 

 everywhere pertinaciously follow the plough, many of them most 

 troublesome aggressors. The most troublesome are Papaver 

 Rhceas, Sinapis arvensis, Anthemis Cotula, Mora's tricolor banner, 

 red, yellow, and white, which she spreads over the fields of Ceres 

 to her great annoyance. Those three are the most troublesome 

 to the farmer amongst his cereals and legumes ; the Poppy 

 amongst the wheat, to which it is particularly attached, because 

 this cereal allows it a longer sojourn to mature itself and ripen 

 its numerous seeds ; but a judicious farmer would, as soon as his 

 crops are secured, plough his fields, when the congenial weather 

 at the end of summer would bring up the young plants and al- 

 lure them from their slumber to destruction ; then either plough 

 again or leave them a prey to the frost. For nearly sixty years 

 I have observed this pest to clothe the fields, whenever they were 

 with wheat, a complete sheet of scarlet, and often the crops ren- 

 dered worthless ; and when those fields were grassed for several 

 years and then planted with wheat, still the poppy has appeared 

 in abundance. The old proverb " One year's seeding is seven 

 years' weeding," more likely to be seven times seven. The stink- 

 ing Chamomile {Anthemis Cotula) is a noxious agrarian aggressor : 

 when abundant in clover has caused the death of horses when 

 turned in to feed when hungry and have eaten too much of it 

 with the clover. 



