Mans Work on the Farm 343 



subject, as there is a plantain acknowledged by all to 

 be a native of America, which is so like the stranger 

 as to have been confounded with it for some time, 

 except by the Indians and the cows. The latter will 

 eat the native plant, but not the other ; and as the two 

 are now distinguished by botanists, it seems likely that 

 the Indians are after all right in their tradition. 



One weed, the Canadian fleabane, made its way to 

 Europe by very singular means. A single seed came 

 over accidentally in a stuffed bird. This was purposely 

 sown, no doubt out of curiosity, and then the deed was 

 done, and the result was beyond control. For the 

 fleabane has downy seeds, and these flew away and 

 spread themselves all over Europe without any further 

 assistance. 



Few weeds have come, or are ever likely to come, 

 from China, by all accounts, for the population is so 

 dense, and labour so abundant and so careful, that 

 none of the cultivated districts are good hunting- 

 grounds for the botanist. When one thinks of the 

 many plants to be found in our fields and meadows, 

 besides those sown and cultivated by the farmer, it is 

 strange to learn that, with the exception of some few 

 water-plants in the rice -fields, the botanist finds 

 scarcely any plants in the fields of China but such as 

 are cultivated. That is to say, he may find stray plants 

 of millet among th^ beans, or lentils among the corn, 

 and so on ; but of * weeds ' pure and simple, unculti- 

 vated plants, he finds scarcely a specimen, and anything 

 answering to the gay poppies and rampant bindweed 

 of our corn-fields is absolutely unknown ! 



It is a curious fact that almost all the really trouble- 

 some weeds in the world are emigrants from Europe. 



