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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1031, 16 March 1869, Page 2

Cape Weed. — The " Cape Weed " is becoming very- common in this neighborhood. This is a much more serious matter than it may at first sight appear, as in various parts of Australia thousands of acres have been rendered comparatively valueless through being overrun with this usurper of the place of more useful vegetation. Many persons watch the springing up of its gaudy blossoms with much anxiety, some of them auguring that the Cape Weed will yet prove a greater evil than even tho " thistle nuisance." It is difficult to provide fov its eradication, but we would point out to agriculturists the desirability, whenever possible, of rooting up plants before they mature their seed. It is impossible to get rid of it in any other way, as it cannot, like sorrel, be choked out of the ground by clover, but on the other hand will itself choke out and usurp tho place of every other ■ green thing. The plant may readily be recognised by the flower, bright yellow, about tho size of a shilling, and much resembling that of the dandelion, but differing from that well-known and useful vegetable, in that instead of beai-ing but one blossom on each flowor stem, it has sometimes as many as fifteen upon a stalk, the stalks being branched. To give an idea of tho rapidity with which it is calculated to spread we may state that the other day we took up a plant just seeding, which had no less than seven flower-stalks each having, on an average, five heads of seeds, one of these — a fair specimen — containing seventy seeds. This (for one set of blossoms only, and the plant blossoms constantly for months), would give to one plant a reproductive capacity of 3150. — Oammrn Times.