Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1880-05-13

and others less noxious. To offset this
list we have given Europe the vilest of
all weeds, q parasite that sucks up
human blood, tobacco. Now il they
catch the Colorado beetle of us il will
go far toward paying them off for the
rats and the mice, and for other pests
in our houses.
The more attractive and pretty of the
British weeds, as the common daisy, of
which the poets have made so much,
the larkspur, which is a pretty corn
field weed, and the scarlet field poppy
which flowers all summer, and is so
taking amid the ripening grain, have
not immigrated TO our shores. Like q
certain sweet rusticity and charm of
European rural life, they do not thrive
readily under our skies. Our heabane
(Erigervn CanodenSiS) has become q com.
mon roadside weed in England, and a
few other of our native less known
plants have gained foothold in the
Old World.
Poke weed is native American. and
what lusty, royal plant it is II never
invsdes cultivated fields, but hovers
about the borders and looks over the
fences like painted Indian sachem.
Thoresu coveted its strong purple stalk
for a cane, and the robins eat its dark
crimson juced berries.
II is commonly believed that the
MULLEN is indigenous to this country, for
have we not heard that it is cultivated
in European gardens. and christened
the American velvet plantl Yet it,
too, seems to have come over with the
pilgrims, and is most abundant in the
| older parts of the country. Ii abounds
throughout Europe and Asia, and had
its economic uses with the ancients.
The Greeks made lamp wicks of its
dried leaves, and the Romans dipped
its dried stalk in tallow for funeral
torches. IL affects dry uplands in this
| country, and, as il takes two years to
mature, il is not troublesome weed in
cultivated crops. The first year it sits
low upon the ground in it's coarse fan.
mel leaves and makes ready if the
plow comes along now its career is end.
ed the second season IL starts upward
its tall stalk, which in late summer is
thickly set with small yellow flowers,
and in fall is charged with myriads of
fine black seeds. "As full as q dry mul
to saying. 'as numerous rs the sands
upon she sea shore"
Perhaps the most notable thing about
the weeds that have come to us from
the Old World, when compared with
our native species, Is their persistence.
not to say pugnacity. They fight for
the soil they plant colonies here and
there and will not be rooted out. Our
native weeds are for the most part shy
and harmless, and retreat before cult.
vation, but the European outlaws follow
man like vermin; they hang to bis coat
skirts, his sheep transport them in their
wool. his COW and horse in tail and
name. As have before said, Il issas
with the rats and mice. The Ameri.
can rat is in the woods and is rarely
seen even by woodmen, and the native
mouse barely hovers upon the outskirts
of civilization while the Old World
species defy our traps and our poison,
and have usurped the land. SO with
the weeds. Take the thistles, for in.
stance; the common and abundant ono
everywhere, in fields and along high.
ways, Is the. European species, while the
native thistle Is much more shy, and Il
not at all troublesome; indeed, | am
not certain that have ever seen IL.
The Canada thistle too, which .came TO
us by way OF Canada, what pest, what
a usurper, what defer of the plow and
the harrow know Of but one effect.
ual way TO treat it: to put on pair
OF buckskin gloves, and pull up every