A BUNCH OF HERBS. 229 



pugnacity. They fight for the soil ; they plant colo- 

 nies here and there and will not be rooted out. Our 

 native weeds are for the most part shy and harmless, 

 and retreat before cultivation, but the European out- 

 laws follow man like vermin ; they hang to his coat- 

 skirts, his sheep transport them in their wool, his cow 

 and horse in tail and mane. As I have before said, 

 it is as with the rats and mice. The American rat 

 is in the woods and is rarely seen even by woodmen, 

 and the native mouse barely hovers upon the out- 

 skirts of civilization ; while the Old World species 

 defy our traps and our poison, and have usurped the 

 land. So with the weeds. Take the thistles, for in- 

 stance ; the common and abundant one everywhere, 

 in fields and along highways, is the European spe- 

 cies, while the native thistles, swamp thistle, pasture 

 thistle, etc., are much more shy, and are not at all 

 troublesome. The Canada thistle, too, which came 

 to us by way of Canada, what a pest, what a usurper, 

 what a defier of the plow and the harrow ! I know 

 of but one effectual way to treat it ; put on a pair of 

 buckskin gloves, and pull up every plant that shows 

 itself ; this will effect a radical cure in two summers. 

 Of course the plow or the scythe, if not allowed to 

 rest more than a month at a time, will finally con- 

 quer it. 



Or take the common St. John's-wort (Hypericum 

 perforation), how has it established itself in our 

 fields and become a most pernicious weed, very diffi- 

 'ult to extirpate, while the native species are quite 



