82 
THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 
A convential definition of a weed is any one of those herba- 
ceous plants which are useless and without special beauty or espec- 
ially which are positively troublesome. Whether a plant be a 
flower or a weed is often dependant on that pair of eyes through 
which we view it. Under the second clause of this definition the 
white daisy of the May meadow, {chrysanthemum leucanthe- 
mum), the inspiration of poets and admired by all through its vir- 
gin beauty, is denounced as whiteweed by the farmers. In a prac- 
tical sense a weed is not necessarily a flower possessing no esthe- 
tic beauty nor does possession of such quality prote:t it from tlie 
brand, but should it prove troublesonie to mankind through unus- 
ual productive powers and rapidity ot growth, it inimediately 
looses caste and becomes a vagabond flower. Our black eyed 
Susan (KurJbeckia hirta) and wild carrot {Daucm carota) equal 
in beauty many pampered garden blossoms, but partaking of the 
pernicious qualities of weeds, they are forever and eternally at 
arms with the t.-^rmers, and in my state, the wild carrot has long 
since been cutic.wed and relentless war is proclaimed against the 
tribe, which liowever, continues to spread and increase, and flaunt 
its banner whiie defiantly from all the countryside. 
The majority of Nature's lovers prefer the first clause of the 
definition as the most accurate and felicitious, for does not the en- 
tirety place all flowers under the possibility of carrying this brand 
of floral disgrace? True to nature conferred on all, the plant in 
its congenial soil, location and clime, will flourish and increase. 
Perhaps in their native soil many exotic weeds are honored and 
respected flowers, but in the unfortunate day when they secured 
a stolen entrance along with honest seed into our regions, their 
downfall was immediate. They proved fruitful and abundantly 
multiplied, spread over the land and graced the wayside walk or 
the brown barnyard floors ; and that saying, concerning familarity 
which breedeth contempt is as old as the brown hills themselves 
and applies also to our weed. 
The lesser weeds compose the entire urban flora; the delicate 
colored species from the fields and hills possess none of the tena- 
city and vitality of the weed that is so necessary for their urban 
life. We may liken the field flowers growing in cities to the in- 
