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THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



breast of the cranberry grower into whose bogs the red-root 

 shows a disposition to spread, to the detriment of the natural 

 accompaniment of our national bird. The photograph shows 

 a particularly clear illustration of the fact that "A weed is a 

 plant cut of place." No matter how handsome its flowers 

 or thrifty its foliage, if a plant interferes with our gardening 

 and farming operations, it is a weed. 



Many of our weeds have handsome flowers. The jimson 

 weed, the toad-flax, the bind weed and many others are in 

 this class, but they are weeds none the less. We commonly 

 think of a weed as a plant that has developed weediness 

 through ages of combat with the agriculturist, but in the case 

 under discussion we have an instance of a weed developed at 

 a jump from a hitherto harmless plant of retired bogs — a sort 

 of novice at the weed business, but pretty successful at that. 



