148 What is a Weed? 



gardeners are so squeamish ; and there we often 

 see the deep copper leaves of the beet-root taking 

 the place in the flower garden to which their lustre 

 entitles them, and the artichoke lifting the regal 

 dignity of its glaucous foliage among beds of 

 dahlias and roses. But in England these distinc- 

 tions are more precise, and even crab-apple or cherry 

 trees are seldom tolerated in respectable flower 

 gardens unless they are warranted to produce 

 fruit too abortive or too sour for human use. Such 

 distinctions are ' undeniably intrenched behind a 

 sound principle ; for the prime purpose of a flower 

 garden is, after all, to minister to pleasure, not 

 utility, and to nurture plants which the English 

 climate does not scatter broadcast in our copses 

 and hedgerows. In their reaction from formality, 

 enthusiasts for wild gardening often tend to forget 

 the difference between a garden and a wood. But 

 it is a mistake to regard the distinctions of the 

 flower garden as primary laws of nature, or to 

 forget that our classification of certain plants as 

 weeds depends entirely upon the purpose which 

 we have in view. The worst of our weeds are 

 merely plants which happen to profit by the same 

 conditions of growth and methods of dispersion 

 and propagation which suit our cultivated crops. 



The distinction between a crop and its weeds 

 is emphasized more strongly on arable land and in 

 gardens than in pastures and hay fields. Many 

 wild plants often occur among the orthodox con- 

 stituents of a grass field, and only a small proportion 

 of them can be called mischievous weeds. But in 



