THE KING-DEVIL WEED. 



F. L. Harvey. 



Hieracium pracaltum, Villars. 



Order Compositae; Sunflower Family. 



HISTORY AND DISTRIBUTION. 



This interesting plant is a native of Europe. It was first 

 described by Dominique Villars in 1808. 



When and where it was introduced into this country, or the 

 circumstances of its introduction are entirely unknown. Air. 

 Lester F. Ward suggests that it may have been originally a bal- 

 last plant of some Canadian port, as Toronto, it having been 

 collected at that place in 1894. 



It was first detected in this country in 1879 by Mr. Lester F. 

 Ward, who found it well established at Carthage and Evan's 

 Mills, Jefferson county, New York. Since that date it has 

 spread over a large area in northern New York, becoming a 

 pernicious weed. On account of its bad reputation in that 

 region, it acquired its regal-satanic name. 



When it made its first appearance in Maine is not known. 

 It was first brought to notice by Air. H. K. Morrell, Gardiner, 

 Maine, who found a few specimens growing in fields in West 

 Gardiner in 1895 and reported them to the Josselyn Botanical 

 Society of Maine. Since that date it has spread rapidly and is 

 now found in many fields in W T est Gardiner, Gardiner, Farm- 

 ingdale and Litchfield, adjoining towns on the west side of the 

 Kennebec, and also at Winslow on the east side of the Kenne- 

 bec, over twenty miles from the other infested area. 



In June, 1897, we received the following letter from Mr. 

 Dewey, assistant botanist at the United States Department of 

 Agriculture: "I received yesterday from Mr. H. K. Morrell, 

 Gardiner, Maine, specimens of devil weed, Hieracium pracaltum. 



