throwing up iiowerstalks of from four to six feet high, and destroying the 

 native herbage entirely. Plants have been seen as far as two hundred 

 miles north, for the winged seeds can be carried a great distance if they are 

 taken up by the whirlwinds. 



Cattle and sheep do not eat the plant, and its extension became so 

 rapid and injurious to the pasture lands, that the Legislature, on October 21st, 

 1862, passed an Act for preventing the further spread of the Scotch thistle, 

 including two other noxious foreign weeds equally dangerous to the 

 herbage, viz., the variegated thistle, Carduus Marianus, Linn., and the 

 Bathurst-bur, Xantkium spinosum, Linn. 



According to the Act every owner or occupier of land upon which, or 

 upon the adjacent half of any road, the above-mentioned thistles are growing, 

 is obliged, in twenty-one days after notice, signed by any Chairman of a 

 Road Board or District Council, has been served upon such owner, to 

 destroy the thistles on his land, otherwise he is liable to a penalty not exceed- 

 ing ten pounds. The Government must, on all unoccupied Crown lands, 

 employ the necessary labor to eradicate the thistles. This stringent measure, 

 it is true, has decimated the plants, but without effecting the object desired. 

 Although thousands of pounds have been spent for the purpose, the destruc- 

 tion of thistles is generally commenced too late to prevent the dispersion of 

 the developed seed. 



Variegated Thistle. Carduus Marianus, Linn. A native of South 

 Europe, also wrongly styled Scotch Thistle, is said to have been introduced as 

 a garden plant in 1846, and has spread to the same extent as the foregoing. 

 In good soil it will grow from four feet to seven feet high. The only 

 advantage it has, is that it is eaten by the cattle when young. 



Bathurst Bur. Xanthium spinosum, Linn. A native of South 

 and West Europe, is as dangerous a weed as the sheepfarmers have to contend 

 with. It was first observed in the colony about 1850, and for the first few 

 years it was confined to the roadsides and the reserves used for travelling- 

 stock, but it spread from thence with alarming rapidity into the interior, 

 assisted by the sheep and horses, in whose wool, and manes and tails, the bur 

 is carried about and spread in all directions. It is said that as many as a 

 hundred burs have been taken off the head of a sheep. The bur adhers so 

 tenaciously to the wool until it is shorn, that it is difficult to pull it off without 

 pulling the wool with it. and so it depreciates the value of the fleece 2d. "to 3d. 

 per pound. 



Artichoke. Cynara Scolymus, Linn. A native of South Europe, has 

 been introduced about twenty-five years. It has found the South Australian 

 climate so genial that it begins to spread throughout the colony. It is found 



