SENECIO JACOBAEA AND CALLIMOBPHA JACOBAEA (the Cattle 

 Killing Ragwort and the Cinnabar Moth) BY HENRY S. 

 POOLE, D. Sc., Guildford, Surrey, England. 



(Read 10th November 1913.) 



Some sixty or more years ago a plant strange to Nova 

 Scotia, known as St. James Ragwort, Ragwort, Baughlan, 

 Staggerwort, and Stinking Willie, was noticed growing at 

 Merigomish and to be spreading over the neighborhood. Its 

 seeds were supposed to have come in the ballast of timber 

 ships. The speculations as to its origin when first noticed 

 gave place in the course of time to invidious references more 

 and more pronounced as the plant spread and invaded pas- 

 tures and hayfields, scattering its seed freely in the Fall in 

 total disregard of the spasmodic endeavors of farmers to 

 extirpate it. It is included in the "Farm Weeds of Canada" 

 by G. H. Clark and James Fletcher of Ottawa, 1902, and is 

 spoken of as a noxious weed imported into Pictou county, 

 Nova Scotia, whence it has spread in the course of years to 

 other parts of the Province. Dr. A. H. MacKay in the 

 Journal of Education for Nova Scotia, 1908, dwelt at length 

 in his earnest endeavors to incite through the public schools, 

 the farmers and their children in the infested districts, to a 

 crusade against the plant. Prizes were given and he says 

 millions of the seed were destroyed. The effort to extermin- 

 ate it by this means, was, however, found ineffectual and 

 consequently abandoned. Any steps that have since been 

 taken to check the spread of the plant have been those of 

 individuals on their own lands only. The roadsides, the 

 burnt lands and the unenclosed woodlands have been left to 

 the undisturbed possession of Stinking Willie. 



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