BURDENS OF SIN 277 



On the other hand, I have often been surprised at the non-arrival 

 of plants. An introduction, for instance, of many score roses from 

 Auckland, a source of weed -supply hitherto untapped, brought not 

 a single new weed. 



The earliest turf turned over in my day on Tutira, and devoted 

 entirely to potatoes, produced none of the following plants : groundsel 

 (Senecio vulgaris), chickweed (Stellaria media), pimpernel (Anagallis 

 arvensis), shepherd's purse (Capsella bursa-pastoris), thyme -leaved 

 speedwell (Veronica serpyllifoliam). They were not in the soil 

 of Tutira in '82. When, however, we moved to the spot where 

 the homestead and the garden were permanently established, when 

 gooseberries, currants, strawberries, raspberries, stone-fruit, apples 

 and pears were planted, the above-mentioned aliens -appeared one 

 by one. There are, in fact, certain species that live particularly 

 about gardens, garden-walks, and garden-bed edgings. Their tiny 

 seeds in a score of ways reach the pockets, clothes, and boots 

 of every labourer employed. He manures them when he dungs 

 the ground, he plants them with his cabbages, he sinks them in his 

 celery - trench, he forks them with his asparagus. They cling to his 

 tools, his pea -stakes, his matting, his garden line. He mixes them 

 in his potting-shed with shredded turf, with sand and leaf-mould. In 

 a hundred ways they are disseminated. It is impossible for the best 

 and most careful firms to forward only the plants ordered. All sorts 

 of things are added gratis. I have received a Somersetshire worm with 

 Kelway's delphiniums ; with Mariposa tulips, even Barr & Sons have 

 forwarded weeds. 



Other plants in this list have arrived by other modes of transit, 

 though always, like those already named, dumped down suddenly. The 

 private taste of a maid has, for instance, it is another example of what 

 has been already noticed, that every episode in station life, even the 

 most trifling and ephemeral, has been marked in weeds, the private 

 taste of a maid, I say, has been responsible for Setaria viridis, PanicUm 

 crusgalli, and canary-grass (Phalaris canariensis). These three plants 

 appeared within a season or two of the arrival of her canaries. Before 

 that they had not been seen. The last-named has extended its range ; I 

 have noticed it on ploughed ground across the lake. Setaria viridis and 

 Panicum crusgalli have not, to my knowledge, yet strayed beyond the 

 precincts of orchard and garden. 



