THE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. , 41 



So that the weed has outposts over extensive areas in Australia. It tends 

 to take entire possession of the land wherever it obtains a footing, and no 

 animal is known to eat it except by accident, that is to say, cropped with 

 other pasture. 



Experience in New South Wales. We have received it from Milson Island 

 (Hawkesbury River), Muswellbrook, and Moor Creek, Tamworth. These 

 localities suggest dirty seed or hay shipped at Sydney, and that the weed is 

 travelling north. There is no doubt that it is abundant in localities adjacent 

 to South Australia and Victoria. 



Mr. E. F. Boiler, the Hon. S-ecretary of the Bimbaya Branch of the Agri- 

 cultural Bureau (Bega district) recently forwarded this plant for identifica- 

 tion as new to the district, and inquiries as to the advisability of declaring 

 the weed noxious. He notes a reference to this plant in an American paper, 

 dated 28th August, 1915, as follows : " Cows on pastures eat the tops of 

 the plant during the fall and spring, thus imparting an offensive odour 

 and flavour to the milk." Also that " a farmer in selling wheat containing 

 any quantity of the seeds of this plant has to stand a dockage of from 10 to 

 50 per cent." 



How to deal with it. It spreads both by seeds and by offsets. Never let 

 it seed; hoeing when in flower is particularly fatal to it. Begin exter- 

 mination before it flowers, in order that no plant may escape. If possible 

 burn every scrap of it; this must be done with care, as it is succulent. 



Dwarf Nettle (Urtica urens L .).* 

 (URTICACE^E: Nettle Family.) 



Popular Description. A small, erect, annual nettle covered with stinging 

 hairs. Leaves ovate-oblong (that is to say, roughly of the outline of a 

 vertical section of a hen's egg), coarsely toothed. Flowers monoecious that 

 is to say, the male and female organs separate from each other, but on the 

 same plant. Flowers in nearly stalkless, short clusters. 



Botanical Description. 



An annual with erect or ascending branched stems rarely above 1 foot high, 

 glabrous with the exception of the rigid stinging hairs. Leaves petiolate, ovate 

 or elliptical, deeply and regularly toothed, 1 to 2 inches long. Inflorescence con- 

 tracted into loose axillary clusters seldom exceeding the petioles, the males 

 and the females intermixed in the same clusters, of the same structure as in 

 U. incisa, except that the larger segments of the female perianth are ciliate on 

 the margin, and usually bear a single dorsal stinging hair. (Bentham.) 



Other New South Wales Nettles. We have a native nettle called Urtica 

 incisa) and a very common introduced one called the " Tall Nettle," Urtica 

 dioica, which is much larger than the nettle now figured, but possessing 

 properties much the same; 



Nettle-sting. The stinging hair of the nettle is fine-pointed and swollen 

 at the base. Touching the nettle breaks off the tip, which penetrates the 

 skin, and. the pressure forces the acrid liquid from the bulbous base along 

 the hair into the wound, and thus irritation is caused. 



When you "grasp your nettle/' instead of touching it lightly, the sting 

 itself becomes crushed and rendered incapable of penetrating the skin. 



Some people, and especially at some seasons of the year, suffer acutely if 

 stung by nettles. 



The juice of a dock (Rumex), of a plantain (Plantago), both very common 

 weeds in New South Wales, or even of the nettle itself, are remedies for the 

 sting. 



* For coloured plate see frontispiece. 



