of its true nature. It does not increase extensively from the root, and there 

 is good evidence from the observations of Rev. Father Burke that where it 

 has been mowed systematically it has in a short time disappeared. In pas- 

 tures and hay meadows every plant should be grubbed out before the seeds 

 form. Systematic and combined effort should also now be made by the muni- 

 cipal authorities to have it destroyed along roadsides and in the streets of 

 towns and villages. In its green state, Ragwort is not readily eaten by 

 domestic animals; therefore, the first attention should be given to cleaning 

 meadows, because when mixed with hay it is eaten by all kinds of stock. 

 Putting the land in the infested districts under a short rotation of crops, 

 would at once do away with this short-lived and shallow-rooted perennial; 

 and, with an effort to keep it mowed down in waste places, conspicuous 

 benefit could not but follow at once. A short rotation of crops would also be 

 a much needed improvement in the farming methods now practised in those 

 parts of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island where the Ragwort is so 

 abundant and injurious. It has been found that sheep can eat this weed 

 with comparative impunity and that it dies out when closely fed off by these 

 animals. It has been pointed out by Dr. Rutherford that the country where 

 it occurs is admirably suited to the raising of sheep. 



The COMMON GROUNDSEL, Senecio vulgaris, L., which has been introduced 

 from Europe and is now found in gardens rather rarely in the Central and 

 Prairie Provinces, but abundantly in the Maritime Provinces and on the 

 Pacific Coast, is a small branching plant 6 to 8 inches high, bearing many 

 tassel-like discoid or rayless flowers. The seeds are long and narrow, spindle- 

 shaped, the upper end blunt and slightly enlarged by the white apical scar ; 

 surface finely ridged lengthwise, and covered with short white bristles, in 

 this way differing from the seeds of the similar Stinking Groundsel, Senecio 

 viscosus, L., which occurs in the Maritime Provinces with the Common 

 Groundsel, and, although the whole plant is viscid pubescent, has its rather 

 longer seeds entirely without bristles; its flower-heads also bear distinct 

 marginal ray-florets. 



The COMMON TANSY, Tanacetum vulgare, L., is quite a different plant 

 from the Common Ragwort, although there seems to be much confusion in 

 the Maritime Provinces as to the identity of the two plants. Tansy has 

 almost rayless flowers, quite smooth 5-ribbed seeds with five blunt teeth 

 at the top instead of a silky pappus. The plant, too, is pleasantly aromatic 

 instead of rankly fetid, a character which in Nova Scotia has gained for the 

 Common Ragwort the name of Stinking Willie. 



