738 
Spread  of  Noxious  Plants, 
Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
October,  1920. 
and  quinidine  in  the  bark,  to  be  a  matter  of  some  importance 
and  consequently  any  information  regarding  the  conditions  under 
which  Nature  herself  tends  to  "separate"  particular  alkaloids  in 
various  species  of  Cinchona  may  be  of  considerable  commercial 
value  in  the  future,  and  not  merely  a  question  of  academic  interest. 
The  authors  have  made  free  use  of  the  very  valuable  report  and 
suggestions  of  Mr.  Holmes,  and  it  is  partly  at  his  request  that  this 
note  is  brought  before  the  Conference. 
THE  SPREAD  OF  NOXIOUS  PLANTS.* 
Considerable  consternation  has  been  caused  in  the  neighborhood 
of  Wagga  (N.  S.  W.)  by  the  discovery  that  St.  John's  Wort  has  taken 
a  firm  hold  of  certain  parts  of  the  district,  and  threatens  to  render 
valueless  a  considerable  tract  of  country  if  its  spreading  cannot  be 
prevented.  There  are  several  parts  of  the  commonwealth  in  which 
this  pest  has  taken  such  a  hold  that  cultivation  has  become  a  diffi- 
culty, and  the  native  herbage  has  been  destroyed  by  the  invader. 
The  Hypericum  perforatum  has  long  been  esteemed  in  medicine, 
and  was  formerly  official  in  the  French  Codex.  It  is  still  esteemed 
among  herbalists  in  the  United  States  as  a  stimulating  expectorant 
and  emmenagogue,  and  a  diuretic,  as  well  as  a  local  application  for 
local  pains,  contusions,  and  burns.  It  is  said  to  have  been  first 
introduced  into  Victoria  by  a  German  woman  who  practiced  as  a 
herbalist,  and  who  cultivated  it  for  medicinal  purposes.  It  has 
spread  to  an  alarming  extent,  and  the  Pastures  Protection  Board 
of  the  Wagga  district  are  taking  vigorous  steps  for  its  eradication, 
and  to  prevent  it  spreading  to  district  lands.  The  weed  was  dis- 
covered growing  by  the  roadsides  and  in  vacant  blocks  of  land,  and 
the  town  council  have  been  urged  to  take  immediate  steps  to  prevent 
its  further  spread. 
Mr.  J.  H.  Maiden,  F.R.S.,  Director  of  the  Sydney  Botanic 
Gardens,  recently  offered  to  supply  persons  desirous  of  obtaining 
the  seeds  of  the  red  poppy  gathered  in  the  Somme  valley  battlefields, 
and  from  the  school  children  of  Villers-Brettoneux  with  small 
quantities  of  this  seed  for  garden  cultivation,  to  remind  them  of  the 
brave  soldiers  who  fell  there.  This  was  met  with  a  vigorous  protest 
and  the  statement  was  made  through  the  columns  of  the  daily  press 
that  we  have  quite  enough  noxious  plants  and  animals  in  New  South 
*  From  the  Australasian  Journal  of  Pharmacy. 
