- 6 - 
In any given locality additions to the number of weeds fre¬ 
quently appear; it may be a plant whose presence in the neigh¬ 
borhood has been noticed, but which has been passed by as inof¬ 
fensive ; suddenly we find it taking possession of our cultivated 
ground, and possibly the next year it develops into a formidable 
pest; another plant, an entire stranger, may from its first appear¬ 
ance be so aggressive as to leave no doubt of its having descended 
from ancestors that somewhere, by struggles through many genera¬ 
tions, had developed those qualities, enabling successful competi¬ 
tion with other plants for possession of good ground. The ques¬ 
tions, Where did these plants come from ? How did they get into 
our soil ? are often difficult to answer. Most of our herbaceous 
weeds are great travellers; they migrate from one place to another 
in a variety of ways. Some are provided with structural features 
which aid dissemination, as the pappus of the fruits of many Com- 
positsB, the coma of the seed of milkweed, or the hooked prickles of 
the fruits of our clot-bur and wild licorice ; some are carried by 
animals or birds, or on the surface of streams, but the most effec¬ 
tive agent in distribution is man himself. Weed seeds are sent 
across the country baled up in hay, in the packing about merchan¬ 
dise, with the grain and grass seed raised for market, and in a hun¬ 
dred other ways. This broadcast distribution of weed seeds is all 
unintentional, and in many cases it, could be. avoided by the exer¬ 
cise of a little care. There is no doubt that many of the weeds 
that are so troublesome are sown with the grain or grass seed. 
Seeds which from casual observation appear clean, may upon criti¬ 
cal examination disclose an astonishing percentage of seeds of 
noxious weeds. Two years ago we ordered from the East seeds of 
twenty species of grasses and forage plants for trial and comparison 
with native species ; only the species ordered appeared on the bill, 
but when the plants came in flower we found a number of species 
for which we had not bargained. As an example, two species of 
brome grass (Bromus inermis, Leyss., and Bromus unioloides, Kunth.) 
were ordered, but we did not order the four poor relations from Eu¬ 
rope which accompanied them, namely: Bromus secalinus, L., 
Bromus racemosus, L., Bromus sterilis, L., and Bromus maximus, 
Desf. ' I may here mention another species of chess which appeared 
for the first time last season, and whose presence seems to trace 
directly to hay used as packing about some goods that came from 
the East, Bromus Tectorum., L., a useless importation from Europe, 
which has been reported from only a few Eastern stations. 
The number of plants that make their first appearance on rail¬ 
road embankments, or about station buildings, confirms the state¬ 
ment that railroads are active agents in disseminating weeds. The 
Eastern weeds that have found lodgment in our soil have mostly 
come by rail, and we may confidently expect the arrival of other 
species that are every year being reported from stations nearer to us. 
