252 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JourNAL. [1 Supr., 1897.- 
The Water Hyacinth. 
By WILLIAM SOUTTER, 
Brisbane Acclimatisation Gardens. 
I wovtp sound a note of warning against the introduction of this abominable, 
although pretty, water-weed. You sounded a note of warning in one of the 
daily papers some months ago. In our Queensland rivers we are not likely to 
find the Hyacinth so destructive as where rivers are looked upon as the hichways 
of commerce, especially in rafting. A friend of mine, writing from a station 
on the Rio Grande del Norte, America, states that, at some seasons of the year, 
it is next to impossible to negotiate some parts of the sluggish reaches of that 
river with timber rafts; while to ascend these reaches in a boat is absolutely 
impossible. When floods supervene, the masses of Pontedcria break away and 
swing out of the current, and form high masses in the smooth water near the 
banks, where it is no common occurrence to find the plant piled up several feet 
above the level of the water ; and when it dries sufficiently, the lumbermen set 
fire to it, and it burns furiously down to near water level. As an evidence of 
how rapidly the plant spreads, ample illustration is obtainable in a pond in 
the Botanic Gardens, where, from a few small pieces planted about a couple of 
years ago, the plant has spread over nearly half the pond in a solid mass, to 
the utter exclusion of every other water plant. The Pontederia is all right as 
a pretty aquatic plant for a small aquarium, but if it once gets into any of our 
freshwater rivers—with room to spread—it will be good-bye to wateér-scenery; 
occasional floods may help to keep it under, but, depend upon it, it will give us 
a deal of trouble. 
AnNorueER correspondent writes as follows on this subject :--The Venezuela 
Water Hyacinth is regarded in America, like the English sparrow, as a very 
troublesome intruder. It has been in the country only a few years, and its field 
has been limited; yet it has succeeded in practically closing perhaps 200navigable 
miles of Florida’s great river, the St. John’s. The plant increases from the seed 
and from runners. A field of it completely covers the water, and no steamboat. 
can penetrate it beyond a short distance. The Federal Government has been 
asked for an appropriation with which to fight the Venezuelan Hyacinth. 
