79^ 



VEV/EW 01 REVIEWS. 



October i. T91S. 



TIU'I DISTRIBUTION o I'- 



ll K POTATO. 



North and South America, as well as 

 throughout Australasia ; South Africa 

 appears thus far to have escaped. All 

 the most troublesome weed wanderers 

 are said to be of British origin. Not 

 only do Britons pervade the earth, they 

 take their weeds with them ! 



Australia has given the temperate 

 portions of the earth the wattle, which, 

 as mimosa, now blooms everywhere on 

 the Riviera, where a century ago it was 

 entirely unknown. The eucalyptus is 

 another of Australia's gifts, the trees 

 having spread with extraordinary 

 rapidity throughout South Africa, Wes- 



THB SPREAD OF THE THISTLE. 



tern America, Mexico, and the Mediter- 

 ranean coasts. 



Four hundred years ago the potato 

 was unknown except as a wild plant 

 growing in Chile and Peru. During the 

 last century it has been cultivated in 

 every country of the world, and this 

 tuber more than anything else has made 

 possible the huge increase in the popu- 

 lation of Europe. Three hundred years 

 ago prickly pears were unknown outside 

 Mexico ; they have now found their way 

 to all the warmer countries, and grow- 

 freely in every continent. Would that 

 they did not ! 



THE PRICKLY PEAR IN ITS NATIVE LAND. 



