6 



Drooping Yellow Woodsorrel, called in the colony Sour-sop. 

 Oxalis cermia, Thunb. A native of the Cape of Good Hope, and introduced 

 into the colony about 1840 as a garden plant. What the black oats are to the 

 wheatfields, the Oxalis cernua is to the gardens. The effects of this scourge are 

 strikingly apparent in every garden where it has been planted, and has 

 notorious pre-eminence over all weeds introduced, since it is next to impossible 

 to eradicate it when it has obtained a footing. The young bulbs penetrate 

 every year deeper into the ground, often two feet, and so multiply that every 

 young plant will produce next year from twenty to thirty bulbs, until the 

 ground is matted over, and all other herbage choked. 



Experiments were made by burying the plants from three to four feet 

 deep, but the young bulbs came up the next year. It has found its way into 

 the wheatfields, and spreads there most alarmingly 



It is said that the first bulbs were sold in the colony at 2s. 6d. per bulb. 



LEGUMIN08AE. 



The following introduced fodder-plants have also spread over some of 

 the pasture lands, improving them materially, viz. : 



White Clover. Trifolium repens, Dec. 



Golden-flowered Clover. Trifolium agrarmm, Dec. 



Common Clover. Trifolium pratense, Dec. 



Small-flowered Melilot. Melilotus parviflorus, Desf. 



Lucerne. Medicago sativa, Dec. 



Toothed Mediek. Medicago denticulata, Willd. 

 . Common Vetch. Vicia sativa, Linn.; and Vicia hirsuta, Fisch. 

 Natives of Europe and N. America. 



UMBELLIFERAE, 



Common Fennel. Foeniculum vulgare, Linn. A native of Europe. 

 This useful medicinal plant was introduced at an early date, and has spread 

 amazingly over the country, especially on the banks of creeks and water- 

 courses, growing to an immense size, often four to six feet high, forming 

 thickets and choking the herbaceous plants. 



COMPOSITAE. 



This order has supplied the most troublesome of the introduced weeds. 



Scotch Thistle. Onoporclon Acanthium, Linn. A native of Europe. 

 Made its appearance in the south, at Cape Jarvis, about 1845, and has since 

 spread extensively over the country. It prefers a rich soil, and shows such a 

 luxuriant growth that in some places it has formed impenetrable thickets, 



