CALIFORNIA PLANTS IN THEIR HOMES 



Really the most troublesome weeds of California are 

 not native plants at all. The plants that occupy the wastes 

 and waysides in towns, and are invading cultivated land 

 everywhere, the malva, filaree, bur-clover, mustard, fox- 

 tail, wild oats, shepherd's purse, chickweed, Bermuda grass 

 sow-thistle, pig-weeds, cockle-bur, hoarhound, dock, 

 Spanish needle, fennel, most tumble weeds and their like, 

 this conquering host is a host of foreigners. Most of them 

 have come here, more or less directly, from Europe, where 

 they have been successful weeds for centuries. It is 

 believed that centuries further back many of these same 

 vigorous weeds were maintaining themselves against culti- 

 vation in the older countries of Asia. That is, as civiliza- 

 tion has advanced from Eastern to Western countries, these 

 weeds have always pursued cultivated plants. The Indians 

 in the early days of American history, called one common 

 weed, the plantain, the "white man's foot," because it 

 appeared wherever the white settlers went. This particu- 

 lar weed does not thrive in California, but there are weed- 

 travelers that can make themselves at home almost any- 

 where ; the shepherd's purse, chickweed and pimpernel 

 are examples. An English botanist once found shepherd's 

 purse flourishing as a weed on a small island in the Antarctic 

 Ocean. The plants were especially abundant about a 

 sailor's grave, so they probably sprang from a seed that 

 had clung to the spade used in digging the grave. 



So it often happens that by the merest accident weeds 

 become colonists in new countries, but they may be said 

 also to have regular routes of travel. Often they come as 

 stowaways in ships, especially in soil used for ballast, 

 lyike tramps they steal rides on trains, their seeds hidden 

 in grain, or clinging to imported vegetables, or to live 

 stock. Having once obtained a foothold in a congenial 

 new country, they spread with marvelous rapidity. Bur- 

 roughs says, ""They walk, they fly, they swim; they go 



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