1 68 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



referred to. Such soil is usually dry, sandy, often loose, or in the case 

 of farmyards moist and rich in nitrogen. These weeds are hardy, often 

 woody-stemmed plants which oust the native plants. They are usually 

 annual, often biennial, and while some are ephemeral and remain a 

 year only, others become well-established for several decades, such as 

 Mallows. Most of them are xerophilous and have hairy stems. A few 

 are shade-dwellers, but the bulk live in the open and are sun-lovers. 

 They are all hardy strugglers, and not only herbaceous plants, but 

 even shrubs, are liable to be choked by an alien incursion of weeds. 



An Act to prevent the introduction of alien weeds into Ireland has 

 been passed, and it is desirable that this be extended to England and 

 Wales. 



Waste places as a whole are diverse in origin and character. We 

 have selected a few of the types, and include about thirty-three species. 



We have first of all hedgerow plants, which owe their introduction 

 largely to a former use in herbal medicine, such as Greater Celandine, 

 which grows under the hedge bounding a cottage garden close to 

 a village. Here also, and always close to a building, one finds Gout- 

 weed, once used for gout, &c. Tansy is also found in the same sort of 

 place. Strayed from the kitchen garden, again, we find Borage shel- 

 tered amongst the protecting branches of a low -trimmed hawthorn. 

 The Bitter-sweet, usually found in the hedgerow, comes up luxuriantly 

 in allotments, though it is also perhaps native in the marsh formation. 



At the base of walls, where there is sand, one finds Common 

 Mouse-ear (along with Chickweed, Sandwort, &c.) and Barley Grass, 

 the last ubiquitous on waste sandy ground, with Barren Brome Grass, 

 Rye, and Couch Grass. On sandy wastes, especially on dunes and 

 roadsides, one finds Stork's Bill, and on hilly ground, Musk Thistle. 

 Along a cart-road Viper's Bugloss may be found on chalky soils. Rail- 

 way embankments are a fertile source of weeds, but we only enumerate 

 two very common ones, Common and Creeping Toad Flax, which 

 along the embankments near Reading hybridize. 



One of the most profitable pieces of ground to draw for cultivated 

 weeds is a farmyard or a stackyard, and around the margins of either 

 it is easy to find amongst others the following: Shepherd's Purse, 

 ubiquitous and in flower all the year (in autumn with purplish flowers 

 coloured by anthocyanin), Common Mallow, forming large and tall 

 handsome, woody, shrub-like clumps, with clusters of striking purple 

 blooms. Here, too, we find tall, sweet-scented Melilot, the stinking 

 May-weed, Burdock, Spear Thistle (which grows in fields too), the 

 lovely blue-flowered Chicory, Hawksbeard (common everywhere in 



