5.Remarkable Instances of Plant-dispersion.

By G. Henslow. (Journal Royal Horticultural Society, vol. 35, pp. 342–351; 1910.)

In this paper the author repeats the assertion that white clover wiped out Phormium tenax in New Zealand, but that the former was ousted by Hypochaeris radicata; further, that the latter in less than three years wholly destroyed excellent pastures and absolutely displaced every other plant on the ground. Reasons are assigned for this (alleged) vigour in white clover and other introduced plants, such as—the climate favouring duration of life; more than one crop of seeds in a year; scarcity of graminiverous birds. Further, it is stated that annual weeds which in England would have no chance with perennials “have spread in inconceivable quantities into the wildest glens, before either white men or even their cattle and flocks penetrate their recesses.”

L. C..