CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



CHAPTER XVI. 



WEEDS. 



What is a weed ? An ugly plant, or a troublesome 

 plant, perhaps you will say. But not all of our weeds are 

 ugly. Sometimes, and in some places, our poppy and even 

 one kind of Mariposa lily become troublesome weeds. Some 

 weeds are only cultivated plants relapsed into a natural 

 condition ; the wild turnip, which we call mustard, and the 

 wild celery and radish for instance. There are plants con- 

 sidered weeds in California, that are carefully cultivated in 

 older countries ; the mustard in many parts of Europe, and 

 the sunflower in Russia, are paying crops. The weedy- 

 looking dock, called canaigre, is very valuable for tanning 

 leather, and we are trying to learn to make use of it. There 

 are still other plants that are treated as weeds when they 

 occur in gardens or orchards, but are encouraged on pasture 

 lands, such as the bur-clover and the filaree. 



So the best definition seems to be, "A weed is a plant 

 out of place." 



To realize the progress of weeds in California, one 

 must have some idea of the vegetation before the coming of 

 the farmer and the shepherd. John Muir, in a charming 

 chapter on "Bee-Pastures," says: "The great central 

 plain of California during the months of March, April and 

 May, was one smooth, continuous bed of honey bloom, so 

 marvelously rich that in walking from one end of it to the 

 other, a distance of more than four hundred miles, your foot 

 would press about a hundred flowers at every step. Mints, 

 Gilias, Nemophilse, Castilleias and innumerable Composite 



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