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XIX. — On Agricultural Weeds. 13j Professor BuCKMAX, of the 
Royal Agricultural College, Cirencester. 
Prize Essay, 
Every one connected with the cultivation of the land, from the 
amateur with his few yards of flower-garden to the farmer with 
his hundreds of acres, must be familiar with the term loeed, as 
both find that their operations are interfered with to a greater or 
less extent by the appearance of some plants among the objects 
they wish to cultivate, which, as interlopers taking up space and 
appropriating food destined for the crop, have from time imme- 
morial borne the reproachful name of weed, our own word being 
derived from the Saxon iceod. 
But easy as it is to understand what is meant by a weed, it is 
curious to mark the varied definitions which have been given of 
the word by lexicographers and others. Bailey describes it as 
" any rank or wild plant that grows of itself;" Walker, " a herb 
noxious or useless Maunder, " a wild herb ;" while Stephens, 
in his Book of the Farm, states that " whenever a plant grows 
where it should not, it is a weed," The latter approaches nearest 
to an agriculturist's notion of a weed. I propose, however, the 
following definition, viz., that every plant growing with the crop 
to its hindrance is a weed. Viewed in this light, a crop culti- 
vated one year, if not all gathered, as potatoes, or shed-seeds, as 
oats, may spring up as tceeds the following season, inasmuch as 
they are now not desired, and would hinder the cultivation of the 
new crop. It is true that, by adopting this definition, every plant 
may be a weed, so that in making out a complete list of weeds 
we should have to tabulate not merely our wild flowers, but 
many of the cultivated plants also ; but fortunately the majority 
of our indigenous plants, except as occasional visitors, keep aloof 
from cultivation ; whilst others, and by no means a small list, 
will constantly be found preferring the vicinage of man's daily 
haunts, and indeed electing to grow under agrarian circumstances. 
All such plants are described in the subjoined table, which is 
meant to convey information on the following points : — 
1st. The natural order to which they belong. 
2ndly. Their botanical names, both generic and specific. 
3rdly. Their common or local names. 
4thly. The soil upon which each species mostly elects to grow. 
5thly. Their duration, whether annual, biennial, or perennial. 
6thly. Their general habit of growth as affecting agriculture. 
And, lastly. General remarks upon their distribution or other- 
wise. 
