PREFACE. 
Since the issue of the Thistle Pamphlet in 1893 the number of plants 
‘on the Proclaimed List has increased considerably, and under instructions 
from the Hon. Geo. Swinburne, M.L.A., ‘then Minister for Agriculture, 
coloured drawings of all the proclaimed plants not previously figured were 
prepared for publication. These have been issued from month to month in 
the Journal of the Department of Agriculture of Victoria with the technical 
descriptions of the plants in question. 
The present work contains these plates, together with a full account 
of the properties and best modes of treatment of all our commoner weeds. 
This has been written throughout in as popular a character as possible, while 
retaining strict accuracy. Technical terms have been avoided as far as pos- 
sible, and a short glossary at the end of the work will enable the few used 
to be understood. The order in which these plates were originally issued 
does not correspond with the systematic arrangement in this work, but it has 
been judged best to place the plates by the plants which they illustrate. 
The complete census of the naturalized plant aliens of Victoria will give 
some idea of the rapid changes which our Flora is undergoing, changes 
which, in a large number of cases, are changes for the worse. It is to 
be trusted that the new Commonwealth Customs and Quarantine Regulations, 
together with the urgently needed “ Pure Seeds Bill,” will check or stop the 
steady flow into Victoria of obnoxious imported weeds. 
IT have to thank Mr. A. T. Sharp, Assistant Editor of the Journal of 
Agriculture, for reading the whole work, both in manuscript and in proof, 
and for considerable assistance in proof correction. Mr. J. W. Audas, of 
the National Herbarium, has aided in the same matter, as well as in the 
preparation of the Index. 
ALFRED J, EWART, 
15th September, 1909. 
