WEEDS IN GENERAL AND OUR WORST 

 WEEDS IN PARTICULAR. 



What is a weed ? How does it differ from a wild 

 flower? These questions are often asked by persons 

 who are beginning the study of botany ; and pupils 

 have been known to put aside a specimen with a look 

 of disgust, saying at the same time that they " did 

 not want to study that nasty weed." 



There is, of course, no difference, botanically speak- 

 ing, between a weed and a wild flower, save that of 

 comparative abundance. Some of our most common 

 weeds are among the most handsome of our wild 

 flowers ; for example, the iron-weed, thistle and ox- 

 eye daisy. They well illustrate the' truth of that old 

 saying that "familiarity breeds contempt," for we 

 have become so familiar with their appearance that 

 we daily pass them by unnoticed. Were they as rare 

 as the showy orchis and wild columbine they would 

 no longer be called " weeds," but " wild flowers," and 

 would, perhaps, be cultivated for ornament; just as 

 among half the collections of house plants in Indiana 

 are found species of cacti which are by no means 

 rarities to the natives of Texas and New Mexico. 



A weed has been defined as "merely a plant in the 

 wrong place," but Grant Allen, a noted English bot- 

 anist, in speaking of this definition says that it is far 



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