^"'fICis^so!''"'  }  Migration  of  Plants  from  Europe  to  America,  109 
has  met  with  it  even  in  the  Canadian  backwoods,  where  only  a  trail  through  the 
bush  existed,  carried  doubtless  in  the  hay  taken  thither  to  feed  the  horses  and  oxen 
of  the  lumbermen  when  driving  logs  in  a  Canadian  winter. 
The  Barberry  [Berberis  'vulgaris),  with  its  graceful  drooping  stems  and  pendant 
racemes  of  bright  yellow  flowers  and  scarlet  fruit,  followed  the  pilgrims  to  Plymouth 
Rock,  and  like  them  has  struck  its  roots  deep  in  the  bleak  hill  of  New  England, 
until  now  it  is  far  more  common  in  the  neighborhood  of  Boston  than  in  any  part  of 
England  with  which  the  writer  is  acquainted. 
Every  one  who  has  owned  or  worked  a  garden  in  America  has  made  the  acquain- 
tance of  the  ubiquitous  Purslane  [Portulaca  oleracea),  so  fondly  mentioned  by  the 
author  of  *'  My  Summer  in  a  Garden  "  as  "  pusley,"  one  of  his  pets  which  stuck  to 
him  so  closely  that  he  could  not  get  rid  of  it.  This,  the  only  valuable  (start  not, 
American  gardener,  it  is  even  so)  plant  of  its  order,  is  cultivated  as  a  salad  and  pot- 
herb 5  but,  transplanted  into  our  soil  and  under  our  skies,  it  has  squatted  on  the  land 
until  nothing  save  constant  watchfulness  and  hoe  can  prev€nt  its  complete  monopoly 
of  the  garden.  It  occupies  here  the  place  of  the  sow-thistle  in  England.  Both 
break  off  at  the  surface  of  the  ground  as  soon  as  an  attempt  is  made  to  pull  them , 
up,  and  when  the  gardener's  back  is  turned  both  send  out  a  new  crop  of  leaves, 
flowers  and  seed,  to  punish  him  for  his  assault.  The  writer  would  like  to  suggest  to 
the  Horticultural  Society  of  Montreal  the  desirability  of  offering  a  prize  for  the  best 
illustrated  essay  on  the  means  of  turning  this  European  immigrant  to  account  in  the 
Canadian  and  American  kitchens.  Possibly  the  surest  way  of  getting  rid  of  it 
would  be  to  make  it  useful.  Useful  plants  are  seldom  so  abundant  as  to  be  a  nuis- 
ance. 
The  Common  Water  Cress  [Nasturtium  'vulgare) — when,  how,  and  by  whom 
introduced  we  know  not — is  now  so  abundant  in  some  places  that  one  is  almost 
tempted  to  look  upon  it  as  a  native.  Many  of  the  streams  of  N;w  York  and  of 
southwestern  Ohio  are  as  thickly  set  with  it  as  are  any  of  the  water-courses  in  old 
England. 
The  Common  Parsnip  {Pastinaca  sativa)  has  run  wild  in  America  in  fence-cor- 
ners and  along  railway  banks  near  Montreal  aud  other  places. 
The  Hemlock  [Conium  maculatum),  of  Socratic  infamy,  has  taken  possession  of 
certain  spots,  as  it  does  in  Europe.  The  writer  has  seen  acres  of  It  along  the  banks 
of  the  White  River  at  Richmond,  in  Indiana. 
The  Ox-Eye  Daisy,  or  White  Weed  of  New  York  [Chrysanthemum  leucanthe- 
mum),  has  crossed  the  Atlantic  with  hay-seed  and  so  completely  monopolized  many 
of  the  meadows  in  the  Eastern  States  that  they  more  resemble  snowfields  than  hay- 
fields  when  the  plant  is  in  blossom.  It  is  slowly  spreading  west  and  south,  and  last 
summer  the  writer  found  it  in  Ohio  close  to  the  State  line  of  Indiana,  appearing  In 
full  vigor  and  of  large  size. 
The  Tansy  [Tanacetum  vulgare),  valued  by  herbalists  as  a  tonic,  is  not  uncom- 
mon.   The  crimped  variety  [crispum]  grows  near  Montreal. 
The  Chicory  [Cichorium  intybus),  with  its  stiff"  stem  and  lovely  but  evanescent 
azure  blue  flowers,  wild  in  England  and  well  known  to  manufacturers  of  coffee  (the 
genuine  article  !)  is  now  one  of  the  wild  flowers  of  the  Island  of  Montreal. 
