392 TRANSACTIONS OF THE 



defective cultivation have caused it, the fact is that the plants 

 have remained feeble, and the crop insignificant. Trials have 

 been made by planting the little bulbs which grow at the union 

 of the leaf stalk with the main stem, about as large as a pea and 

 hardly that. Who would expect a crop of proper sized potatoes 

 from bulbs so trifling 1 Certainly it would require three years' 

 successive growth to make them over small potatoes. South of 

 Paris, and in the sandy soil of the Bordelait, it grows much bet- 

 ter than in England. It is ascertained that the plants should 

 grow as near to each other as carrots. 

 DISTRIBUTION OF VEGETABLES OVER THE EARTH. 



[Hevue llorticole, Paris, Nov., 1855.] 



Extracts translated by H. Meigs. 

 Man is the great cause of the migration of vegetables. It is 

 now not half a century since the island of Van Diemen received its 

 first European colonists, and already everywhere the vegetation 

 has changed its aspect by the mixture of a crowed of wild or half 

 wild plants brought from Europe, some of which have so multi- 

 plied, that they have become as troublesome to the farmer of Van 

 Diemen as of Europe. The common Hoarhound, {Mai-rubium 

 Vulgare,) the Chamomile, (^Anthemis Arvensis Mohilis^) infest the 

 farms and gardens of Van Diemen, and sometimes to that amount 

 as to exclude all other plants. Thistles of various species already 

 cover the whole island. It is not rare to see hundreds of acres 

 there covered alone and entirely by the thistles or some other 

 weed. You walk over some fields so close in weeds that tliey 

 feel like down as you walk ankle deep over them. The Eglan- 

 tine (wild rose) was carried there to put in quick hedges, but it 

 has escaped from cultivation a long time ago, and now in many 

 places forms thick brushwoods. Its multiplication is so rapid 

 that unless great care be taken, it will soon become a formida- 

 ble enemy to cultivation of the lands. The Hawthorn grows 

 here with the same rapidity as in Europe, and makes excellent 

 quick hedges, but does not spread like the Eglantine, although 

 it beai's abundant fruit every year. The plants and trees natura- 

 lized here, indicate the analogies between this climate and that 

 of Great Britain, from whence they come. In Van Diemen, as in 

 England, the pears, apples, plums, cherries, are the principal 

 productions of the nurseries and fruit gardens, and have become 

 quite extensive articles of export to our neighbor Australia. 

 Gooseberries, strawberries and rasj^l^erries are gathered in great 

 quantities, and are fully as good as those of England. Peaches 



