THE PLANTING OF OUR FLORA 165 



these introduced plants spread is amazing. Let a 

 new road be opened through the virgin forest and 

 sand burs, beggar's ticks, Sidas, and Sporobalus — 

 the latter a useless grass from India — ^will form a 

 border along it in a single season. I elsewhere 

 mention the beautiful Natal grass (Tricholaena), 

 which is coming in rapidly and promises to be a 

 valuable forage plant. 



Not far from my home is an extensive rock pit 

 which has been abandoned over a year. It is 

 located in the pine woods at some distance from 

 any habitation or road, save the one over which 

 rock was hauled away. Within it I counted more 

 than sixty well-established species of plants, over 

 one third of which were adventive. The seeds 

 had been wind-borne; rains may have washed in a 

 few; wild animals and birds had carried some more, 

 and doubtless some had been brought by the teams 

 and wagons that did the hauling. 



In the parable of the sower some seeds fell by 

 the wayside and the fowls devoured them; some 

 were cast on stony places to wither and die. 

 Other seeds were sown among thorns and were 

 choked, but still others fell in good ground and 

 brought forth thirty, sixty, even an hundred fold. 



