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P(i7VS0?i : Weeds. 



In reg'ard to the distribution of water-plants, it must be 

 noticed that they have some advantage over their brothers of 

 the dry land in extending- their range of habitat, for they are 

 dispersed not only as seeds but as plants. The waters tear 

 them and distribute them over their lower course, especially in 

 times of heavy rain and consequent inundation. These broken 

 pieces remain plump and fresh in their own element and very 

 commonly root and flourish on the spot where the flood has left 

 them lying as readily as a gardener's cuttings. 



There are also two waterside plants from America which are 

 to be found here and there in England. These are Impatiens 

 fulva (now hiflora, a yellow balsam) and the yellow mimulus. 

 Watson, in the volume of his ' Cybele,' which was published in 

 1870, speaks of this balsam as 'thoroughly established,' and 

 couples it with the Anacharis ; and Hooker, in his ' Student's 

 Flora' of 1884, notes it as 'rapidly spreading.' It was first 

 given a census-number of 7 in the eighth edition of the ' London 

 Catalogue of British Plants,' published in 1883 : but in the two 

 editions which have followed, this small distribution in 7 out 

 of 112 vice-counties has not been increased. I suppose there 

 are many northern botanists who have never seen the plant. 

 The mimulus we have all seen by village brooks in all parts of 

 the country, but no one imagines for a moment that it can hold 

 its own with the watercress or the brooklime, or the mints or 

 the rushes. It can only be regarded as a garden-escape, easily 

 carried by water, which roots easily in wet ground, and which is 

 much preserved for its beauty. 



The only other American plant, that I can remember, which has 

 gained a foothold in our islands, is Erigeron canadense. This 

 seems to be able to flourish in dry innutritions places where no 

 native plant cares to grow. On the other hand, our common 

 English plants have invaded temperate America much as the 

 Anglo-Saxon race has done, and each year they penetrate 

 farther into the country. I was told a few weeks ago by one of 

 our members that he had heard from a correspondent in Dakota, 

 which is in the very centre of the States, more than 1,200 miles 

 from the sea-coast, that the yarrow and the plantain were first 

 noticed in that neighbourhood last year, and that the dandelion 

 and the wild chamomile have made their appearance during the 

 present season. Three of these four you will notice are perennial 

 plants, and one of them is an annual weed. The plantain would 

 no doubt be Plaiiiago Duijor, to which the North American 

 Indians long ago gave the name of 'the white man's foot,' 



Niituralist, 



