THE WEEDS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 93 



SHIRES continued. 



Gunning Lachlan Narraburra VVeddin 



Holbrook Lockhart Timbrebongie Windouran 



lllabo Muhvaree Tumbarumba VVmgadee 



Jemalong Murrungai Urana Yanko. 



Jindalee Murray Wakool 



Kyeamba Namoi Waugoola 



MUNICIPALITIES. 



Albury Corowa Murrumburrah Wallendbeeh 



IBalranald Junee Parkes Wyalong 



Cootamundra Moama Wagga Wagga Yass. 



Soliva sessilis (Ruiz and Pavon). 

 (COMPOSITE: But it would not be proper to call it Daisy Family.) 



Popular Description. A small, insignificant plant with finely divided 

 small leaves and inconspicuous greenish flowers, and bearing a profusion of 

 burrs armed with numerous spines. 



Botanical Description. 



Villous, or the leaves glabrous, twice divided, primary divisions 3-5, petiolate, 

 parted into 3-5 narrow lanceolate lobes; flower heads depressed; achenes 

 broadly obovate, thin-winged, the wings entire or sometimes panduriform- 

 excised near the base, spindulose-pointed at summit, in some wings reduced 

 to an acute margin ; persistent style long and stout. (Gray's " Synoptical Flora 

 of North America," p. 365.) 



A Close Relation. "Gymnostyles anthemifolia is stated by M. de Jussieu 

 to be a native ;of New South Wales, but as I have observed it only in cul- 

 tivated ground in the neighbourhood of Sydney, and as it has certainly 

 been found in South America, of which four other species of the genus are 

 undoubtedly natives, it has probably been imported into New South Wales, 

 perhaps from Brazil." (Robert Brown, in the " Proceedings of the Linnean 

 Society of London," vol. xii, p. 102, published in the year 1818.) 



This is Soliva anthemifolia, which, although described in the Flora Aus- 

 traliensis iii, 552, is clearly indicated as an introduction, in these words: 



" A small genus, apparently limited to the warmer regions of America, 

 except where introduced with cultivation.' 7 



Nevertheless, Mueller placed it in his " Census of Australian Plants." It 

 is a larger plant, and less prickly than 8. sessilis, and is found more or less 

 over the State, extending to the North Coast and the Western Plains. 



First Record in New South Wales. The Australian history of the present 

 species (S. sessilis) so far as I know it, is as follows: 



It was first sent to the Botanic Gardens in October, 1899, from the Cricket 

 Ground in Moore Park, Sydney, by the late Mr. Sheridan, managing trustee. 

 It is quite easy to imagine how it came to Sydney. A sailor from, say, 

 Chili, where it is very common, would get the burrs hi his shore trousers 

 and fold them up when he returned to his ship. Arrived at Sydney he 

 would sit down and witness a cricket match, leaving one or more of the 

 seed-containing burrs on the cricket ground. A small and insignificant 

 plant, it was not noticed until it got a good hold, and I remember how it 

 grieved Mr. Sheridan, for he had received many complaints from patrons 

 who, said that they could no longer sit on the grass with comfort; they had 

 to stand up. 



The following year it was reported from Parramatta. In 1903, Mr. Jesse 

 Gregson sent it from Newcastle. Since then it has spread abundantly in 

 the coast districts, particularly in sandy grass land. 



t 64225 D 



