WILD FLOWERS. 



To such a serious extent has this evil increased in 

 the colony of Victoria, that an Act of Parliament 

 " against the growth of thistles/' which received the 

 Royal assent on the 19th of March, 1855, enforces 

 penalties of the greatest severity against persons 

 suffering thistle-plants to remain on their land. Ac- 

 cording to this Act, which, of course, applies equally 

 to the public lands and to private holdings, any 

 owner, lessee, or occupier of land in Victoria upon 

 which, or on the half of any road adjacent thereto, 

 thistles are growing, is bound, after fourteen days' 

 notice, signed by a justice of the peace, to destroy 

 all thistles upon such land, or failing to do so, he in- 

 curs a penalty of not less than 51. nor more than 6 20l. 

 Service of the notice at the occupier's usual or last 

 known place of abode is held good, and all cases 

 under the Act are determined in a summary way by 

 two or more justices of the peace. The justices, 

 however, have power to suspend the conviction on 

 proof that the occupier has used, and is using, rea- 

 sonable exertions to destroy the plant. No infor- 

 mation can be laid against any owner of land until 

 the Act has been enforced against the occupier or 

 lessee, and no second information can be laid within 

 thirty days after a previous conviction. If any 

 owner, lessee, or occupier neglect, or refuse to de- 

 stroy thistles on his land for a space of seven days 

 after the receipt of notice, any person armed with a 

 written authority from a justice of the peace may 

 enter on the land, with sufficient assistants to de- 

 stroy and eradicate the nuisance, and may cause the 

 expenses to be assessed by two justices of the peace, 



