WEEDS OE OUR FIELDS, WAYSIDES AND TOWNS. 15 



that name. From its home in the wild pnre air of Kerry 

 it has been transported to the smokiest of towns where it 

 thrives amazingly, even in the most dismal windswept 

 corner of my garden in Widnes. But why? 



And if Poa annua can ripen its seed in six weeks 

 after being seed itself, one ought to know how it does it. 



But to bring this long array of agenda, for that is 

 all that I can call them, though most of the presidents of 

 this Society can speak of Acta, quorum pars magna 

 fuerunt, I do venture to indicate that among the com- 

 monest of living objects, in which there is neither rarity 

 nor special beauty to attract the collector, there exist 

 scientific problems of grave importance. If I understand 

 Biology aright it is that convergence of scientific informa- 

 tion from which we learn how the other creatures in the 

 world live. And though I do not wish to appeal to our 

 pride in any way, I venture to think that any living things 

 which can defy the open hostility of the human race — of 

 our lordly selves, in fact — are entitled to our respect and 

 our study. There are secrets hidden, and when they are 

 revealed more secrets will be found behind them. We 

 may be a very long way from the ultimate critical act 

 which converts the not-living matter into the living 

 creature, but I rather think that somewhere at the roots of 

 the weed we tread upon may lie part of the secret. 

 Wherefore, like old Horace's whetstone, though myself 

 incapable of doing aught, and my microscope lying idle in 

 its case, I may, perchance, sharpen others for the work. 



