19073 Luckless Importations 



in Japan, where I never had anything stolen, no 

 matter where I left it. 



The railway from Brisbane to Sydney, capital of 

 the great state of New South Wales, looks short on 

 the map, but Australia is " a land of magnificent dis- 

 tances." From the car window I noted the mischief Ruin 

 wrought by a luckless person who introduced the f""?^* 



OV CdCtUS 



common cactus — Opuntia engelmanni — of South- 

 ern California, thinking it might serve as a hedge 

 plant. But as he brought none of its natural enemies 

 along, it throve mightily in Queensland and northern 

 New South Wales, preempting millions of acres of 

 good land, to clear most of which is prohibitively 

 costly. Boiled, the segments may be fed to stock, 

 another expensive process not adopted except in 

 time of drought. 



The land fauna and flora of Australia represent 

 ancient types never exposed to the fierce competition 

 among individuals and species which has taken place 

 on the Asiatic mainland. For this reason, new weeds 

 and beasts of various kinds easily displace the native 

 forms with which they compete. The disastrous other 

 spread of the European rabbit is a matter of common ^"'^^f ""^ 

 knowledge. Importation of the red fox of Europe, grants 

 the Scotch thistle, the water cress, and the water 

 hyacinth, the last named blocking even navigable 

 rivers, has been likewise calamitous. In New Zealand, 

 where similar conditions obtain, the Maoris say that 

 "as the White Man's rat has driven away the native 

 rat, as the European fly drives away our own, and 

 the clover kills our fern, so will the Maoris disappear 

 before the White Man." 



In Sydney they put me up at the Australian Club, 

 where I was soon joined by Dr. Payson J. Treat of 



C 205 3 



