342 Man's Work on the Farm 



1870, during the Franco-Prussian war, seeds were thus 

 brought to France by troops from Algiers, and were 

 scattered in different places, where they germinated 

 and grew up, but apparently found soil or climate un- 

 congenial, and died out in the course of two or three 

 years. Had they travelled south instead of north, they 

 might have become permanent colonists. 



Again, the ballast of vessels is a very favourite 

 hiding-place for seeds ; and foreign plants often first 

 spring up in the neighbourhood of sea-ports, being 

 brought not only in this way but in others less obvious. 

 Intercourse of any kind with foreign lands is almost 

 sure to lead to the introduction of foreign plants, not 

 only without any effort on man's part, but often quite 

 against his wishes. 



Fleeces from South America, Mexico, and the Cape, 

 have been the means of bringing seeds to some of the 

 valleys of Gloucestershire, and to the Pont Juvenal, 

 near Montpellier, where they were washed and spread 

 out to dry ; and in many cases these seeds have not 

 only germinated but blossomed, though they have not 

 lasted more than a season or two. 



No one, probably, would wish to assist that trouble- 

 some weed, the wayside plantain, to migrate, yet, if 

 the tradition of the American Indians is to be trusted, 

 it has followed the white man all over the western 

 continent. The seeds are very minute, though they 

 are not otherwise specially capable of dispersing them- 

 selves ; and if once they managed to slip in anywhere, 

 they would be carried unnoticed. Certain it is that 

 the Indians look upon this plantain as having come 

 with the white man ; for they call it the ' White Man's 

 Foot.' Botanists have been rather sceptical on the 



