peesident's addeess. 199 



wherever the circumstances are favourable to their growth. . . 

 . . . . But man interferes with this law in his processes of 

 gardening and horticulture. His object is to cultivate beautiful 

 or useful plants within enclosures, from which all other plants 

 are excluded. He wishes to separate from the struggle of the 

 elements, and from' the competition of other species, certain 

 kinds of flowers or vegetables which are good for food or pleasant . 

 to the eye. In this he is only partially successful, for into that 

 plot of ground which he has set apart from the waste common of 

 Nature a large number of plants intrude, and with them he has 

 to war a constant warfare. These plants are known by the 



name of weeds There is one peculiarity about 



weeds . . . they only appear on ground . . . which has 

 been disturbed by man. . . . ' . Have these plants always 

 been weeds ? If not, where is their native country ? I^o satis- 

 factory answers can be given to these questions. . . Most of 

 our weeds possess all the characteristics of a desert flora, special 

 adaption to a dry soil and arid climate. The Dock. and the Dan- 

 delion have long tap roots, the object of which is to store up a 

 supply of water, enabling the plants possessing them to live 

 through a long rainless period, and in spots from which moisture 



has vanished The Dead K'ettle is covered with a 



silky hair, a provision made to attract the moisture of the air, 

 and so to counteract the drought of the circumstances in which 

 it grows." 



But this subject may be carried yet further. It not only 

 pertains to the weeds of the gardens. But the question natur- 

 ally arises where is the true, the original, the native home of 

 each and all the various forms of vegetation which clothe the 

 mountains of Switzerland, which are the distinctive flora of the 

 wild. and uncultivated parts of our own country, our moors, our 

 fens, as far as they exist stiU, our hiUs, and our mountains. 

 The glowing Poppy, the lovely blue Cornflower, and others 

 found amongst corn crops, which seem to speak to us, by the 

 brightness and glory of their colour, of lands of unclouded sun- 

 shine. They have wandered, who can say how, far from their 

 native home, and emigrating, have given a beauty to our fields 



