SOME RECENTLY INTRODUCED WEEDS. 15 



fields, and unfortunately there are still others of the genus in 

 Europe which may be expected to arrive at any time. 



The common and most natural practice of throwing out gar- 

 den refuse has occasionally been responsible for the establishment 

 in a community of pernicious weeds. The orange hawkweed 

 {Hieracium aurantiacwn) was popular in some old gardens of 

 central Maine during the 70 's under the name tassel-fiower or 

 Yenus's paint-brush. It propagates very freely by runners as well 

 as by feathery fruits, and about 1880 it began to spread slightly 

 from gardens to adjoining fields. Once in the field it made the 

 most of its unrestrained liberty and soon spread so generally over 

 large areas* of Maine and other Xew England states as to under- 

 go a change of its colloquial name from Yenus's paint-brush to 

 the Devil's paint-brush. The Uve-forever {Sedum Teleplnum) 

 perhaps better known as Jacob's ladder, was long cultivated in 

 old-fashioned borders. It is extremely tenacious to life, and 

 every portion of it thrown out from the garden started a new 

 colony, and now the damp fields in many parts of New England 

 and Canada are given over to this almost indestructible weed. 



Two other sources of weeds are sufficiently important to 

 receive our special consideration — ballast grounds and woolen 

 mills. It has long been the custom for ships sailing from one 

 port to another with a light cargo to make uj) the deficiency by 

 loading the hold with rocks, gravel, or earth as ballast. When a 

 port is reached from which a full cargo is to be taken this ballast 

 is discharged and the boat is ready for its new load. The soil 

 damped upon ballast grounds of our principal poi'ts contains the 

 seeds of many species which abounded at the home port from 

 which the ballast was obtained, and after this soil is scattered 

 upon the flats or used as filling for a dock many strange plants 

 make their appearance. The possible number of species to be 

 found by the diligent searcher on the ballast lands of Boston or 

 Xew York is of course ver}- great ; but most of the plants of 

 such places, shut in by city walls and with little opportunity to 

 spread into the open country, soon perish or are covered by a 

 new load of ballast perhaps from a second port. To such ballast 

 lands, however, there often come plants which, once given an 

 opportunity, will become troublesome weeds. A coarse Euro- 



