224 A. G. HAMILTON. 
year and yet never gain a footing outside. Others again, which 
have the power of spreading rapidly, are never able to do so, as 
they are succulent feed, and cattle take care that they never 
multiply. Such are oats and other grains. Wheat never seems 
to spread at all away from the fields in which it is cultivated. 
But still there are numbers of useful plants which are able to hold 
their own and more. Among these may be mentioned the lemon, 
peach, Cape gooseberry, tomato, and passion fruit, all of which 
are wild in many parts of the Illawarra district, and continue to 
bear fruit. Another species of passion flower (Passiflora alba 2 
is common there and is even more plentiful than the edible species. 
It is bitter and nauseous, but has spread over large tracts of bush 
country, converting them into tangle of the densest description. 
The common bramble or blackberry has been introduced for the 
sake of its fruit, and is now beginning to be a troublesome tenant 
of unoccupied lands in the cooler parts of the Colony. It reaches 
a development far exceeding that attained in its native land. 
Sweet-briar and Scotch thistles are said to have been introduced 
for the sake of the associations clustered round the plants in the 
mother country. The latter plant is reported to have been intro- 
duced into Tasmania by a patriotic Scotchman desirous of having 
his national plant growing near his new home. He appears, by 
all accounts to have succeeded only too well. 
But with regard to most introduced plants, there is much 
difficulty in discovering the method of introduction. The plants 
which habitually flourish in European cornfields are certainly 
easily accounted for—they came in the seeds imported to the 
Colonies. Such are corn marigold, corn spurrey, and many of the 
Caryophyllez, the cornfield poppy and numerous others which 
will occur to every one. Then again, many noxious weeds grow- 
ing among grain, were introduced to Australia in straw in packing 
cases. Such are the Centaureas and others. As an example of 
this I may note that Bupleurum rotundifolium first appeared in 
the Mudgee District in a yard where a box from England was 
unpacked. 
