378 THE COTTAGE GARDENER AND COUNTRY GENTLEMAN’S COMPANION.— August 20,1850. 
Ray and Plukenct; nor was my attention directed to 
its very distinct character, even as a variety, until, in 
1831, the Rev. W. T. Bree described it in the 1 Magazine 
of Natural History,’ under the name of recurvum, since 
which time opinion has been divided respecting its 
claim to rank as a species.”—( Sowerby’s British Ferns.) 
Mr. Reeve, writing to us relative to its cultivation, 
says:— 
“ Lastr/ca Fcenisecii is, perhaps (of all the Lastreeas), the 
most elegant in form, and, producing as it does many distinct 
forms, is well worth cultivating. It is of such easy culture, 
that it should not be absent from any collection. It will, in 
the shade, unfold its fronds to the length of three feet, and 
produce them rather abundantly, making, together, a very 
noble object; but in proportion as it is exposed to the sun, 
so it becomes less luxuriant in habit, and also less in the 
number of its fronds. It may be grown in almost any 
degree of shade, from the Fernery or shrubbery, excluded 
from the sun altogether, to a situation exposed to all its 
rays; but, as I have said, much beauty will he lost ac¬ 
cording to the degree of exposure to light which it has 
to endure. It may be grown in sandy loam, with a little 
leaf mould ; or, in default of leaf-mould, in most cases, 
a few very rotten sticks broken into small pieces will form 
a very good substitute. The fructification (which will be in 
a ripe state towards the end of the summer) may be 
employed for its propagation, proceeding in the same way 
as directed for other species. The plants, if grown in pots, 
will require to be plunged in winter.” 
During some recent rambles in various parts of 
England nothing struck us more forcibly than the 
general abundance of seeding weeds in the hedgerows 
and vacant plots by the road sides. There were some 
striking contrasts to this gross neglect, and none more 
so than on a long, dreary piece of down land between 
East Ilsley and Shilton, in Berkshire. We never saw 
cleaner, neater hedgerows than near the latter village; 
and the farmers, with praiseworthy foresight, had men 
employed in cutting down the Thistles just blooming 
on the Downs. Thistles, Dandelions, Groundsel, and 
similarly parachuted-seeded plants, when allowed to 
perfect their seed, become a wide-spreading calamity to 
the neighbourhood; and we cannot urge too strongly 
upon parish authorities and railway companies, as well 
as upon the trustees of turnpike roads and individuals, 
the very great importance of destroying such weeds, or, 
at all events, preventing their seeding by cutting them 
down as often as they reach a blooming state. So im¬ 
portant is such prevention felt to bo in Australia, and 
to such an excess have Thistles attained from neglect 
in that colony, that the Legislature has visited with a 
severe penalty those who neglect to destroy them. 
The following is extractedfrom the Melbourne Argus: — 
"An act against the growth of Thistles received the 
Royal assent on the 19th of March. It is one the necessity 
of which must be obvious to every oue acquainted with the 
colony, and, with a view to its effectual operation, it is of a 
very stringent character. It may seem, at first sight, that 
its provisions are too severe, but from its nature the act re¬ 
quires to be armed with very rigorous powers of enforce¬ 
ment, and with heavy penalties for non-compliance with its 
provisions. After reciting in its preamble that great loss 
and injury are occasioned to the lands of tho colony by the 
spread of tho plant called the Thistle, and that no measures 
can be effectual for its eradication unless provision be made 
for its destruction on private as well as public property, tho 
act proceeds to provide the required remedy. By clause 1, 
any owner, lessee, or occupier of land in Victoria upon 
which, or on the half of any road adjacent thereto, Thistles 
are growing, is bound, after fourteen days' notice, signed by 
a justice of the peace, to destroy all Thistles upon such 
land, or, failing to do so, he incurs a penalty of not less 
than 5/., or more than 20/. Service of the notice at the 
occupier’s usual or last known place of abode is held good, 
and all cases under the act are determined in a summary 
way by two or more justices of the peace. The justices, 
however, have power to suspend the conviction on proof 
that the occupier has used and is using reasonable exertions 
to destroy the plant. No information can be laid against 
any owner of land until the act has been enforced against 
the occupier or lessee, and no second information can be 
laid within thirty days after a previous conviction. If any 
owner, lessee, or occupier neglect or refuse to destroy 
Thistles on his land for a space of seven days after the 
receipt of notice, any person armed with a written authority 
from a justice of the peace may enter on the land, with 
sufficient assistants, to destroy and eradicate the nuisance, 
and may cause the expense to be assessed by two justices of 
the peace, and recover them in a summary way. Persons 
armed with the written authority of a magistrate may enter 
on lands to search for Thistles without being guilty of a 
trespass, and are not liable for any damage done unless 
inflicted unnecessarily and wilfully. Justices are empowered 
to issue orders for search, and to order the destruction of 
Thistles." 
With every respect for British liberties, we should 
have no objection to see a similar statute passed, en¬ 
forcing upon all occupiers of land in the British Islands 
a similar destruction of migratory weeds. 
It is quite true that Britons have a right to do what 
they like with their own, but their doings with their 
own property ought not, and must not, cause injury to 
the property of others. A manufacturer may have as 
much smoke and as many corrosive fumes as he may 
choose come out of his chimneys, but he must have his 
chimneys so high that the smoke and the fumes do not 
injure the crops of his neighbours ; for if that smoke or 
those fumes do cause such injury, then the manufac¬ 
turer is liable to be mulcted in damages.- 
If a cultivator of the soil could prove that a certain 
overwhelming invasion of Thistles sprang up from seeds 
blown to his ground from the neglected ground of a 
neighbour, wo are not sure that damages could not be 
recovered against that neighbour; but the difficulty 
would be to prove that the Thistles sprang up from 
seed so migratod. 
Every cultivator of tho soil knows, and he ought to 
act as common sense dictates upon such knowledge, that 
every weed is a robber, taking from the soil that which 
ought to add to tho nourishment of the crop cultivated, 
among which that weed grows. Every cultivator also 
knows that the old adage, " One year’s seeding, seven 
years’ weeding,” is scarcely an exaggeration of the in¬ 
creased hoe labour and fallowing caused by one year's 
neglect to destroy the weeds. That it is scarcely au 
exaggeration is evidenced by the single faot thoft 8000 
seeds have been ripened in one Poppy head. But we 
have still fuller information than this, for Mr, Morton 
has published the following list of weeds, with the 
number of seeds obtained from a single plant of each, 
and the date of the gathering;— 
Black mustard. 8,000 .... Aug. 17 
Charlock. 4,000 .... Sept. 18 
Shepherd’s purse. 4,500 .... — 0 
