6 THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



DEFINITION OF A WEED. 



As a result of the conditions stated there are many definitions 

 of a weed, among them being: 



(a) "A plant out of place or growing where it is not wanted." 



(6) "A plant whose virtues have not yet been discovered." Emerson. 



(c) "An herb which is useless or troublesome and without special 

 beauty. 



(d) 'Tobacco." 



(e) "A plant which contests with man for the possession of the soil." 



(f) "A useless plant growing wild, of sufficient size to be easily no- 

 ticeable and of sufficient abundance to be injurious to the farmer." 



(g) "Any injurious, troublesome or unsightly plant that is at the 

 same time useless or comparatively so." 



The reader, be he student, teacher, poet or farmer, can choose 

 from the above definitions or others the one which suits best his own 

 taste, fancy, belief or experience. Suffice it to say that whether 

 a plant is a weed or no depends wholly upon the point of view. 

 Many a plant, which is among the worst of weeds to a farmer, is 

 to the poet or naturalist a flower of surpassing beauty. The list 

 of Indiana weeds which follows is based upon the standpoint of the 

 farmer, and comprises the 227 of the 2,000 and more plants grow- 

 ing wild in the State* which are thought to be the most harmful 

 to his interests. During its compilation definitions (/) and (g), 

 above given, have been the ones considered. 



Those plants which have become the most common or " worst 

 weeds" are those which have been most successful in evolving 

 methods or properties of defending themselves against being de- 

 stroyed by plant-eating animals ; in devising means for ready and 

 rapid cross-fertilization, either by wind or insects, and in provid- 

 ing for themselves effective means of distributing tl-eir see^s or 

 other ways of propagation when the seeds are difficult to ripen. 

 Under the head of the Nettle Family, in the list which follows, 

 are mentioned some of the ways by which plants defend them- 

 selves from browsing animals. The ox-eye daisy and related weeds 

 of the Compositae Family have been most successful in devising 

 methods for fertilization of a large number of flowers in a short 

 time by insects, while the grasses and plantains are adepts in pro- 

 ducing means for wind fertilization. 



*0f these, 1,783 are listed in Sianley Coulter's "Catalogue of the Flowering Plants and Ferns and Their 

 Allies Indigenous to Indiana," published in 1899. In various papers published since that date in the Proceedings 

 of the Indiana Academy of Science, 177 additional species have been recorded. 



