A year or two ago, we were reminded by the Prime Minister, in one of his thoughtful and suggestive speeches at Hawarden, that ‘one year’s seeding is seven years’ weeding.’ One can appreciate the repetition of the adage when reflecting on the enormous increase of the common groundsel, or the still more extraordinary multiplication of the common poppy. All the year round, even when the temperature is below the freezing-point, the small yellow blossoms of the groundsel may be noticed, each with its bundle of winged seeds, while round the parent plant are a host of young seedlings. But such is the prodigious fertility of the common poppy, that a single plant will during its year of life produce forty thousand seeds! a rate of increase that would, it is computed, in the course of seven years cover the area of Great Britain; and furnish, we may further reckon, enough opium to lull the whole population into a last long sleep. The small seed escapes when ripe through the apertures at the base of the capsule. Next to the poppy and groundsel we may place the charlock, chickweed, and corn marigold, all annuals, and to be easily got rid of before flowering by hoeing. Some years ago, I was told by an intelligent head-gardener in the island of Colonsay, in the west of Scotland, that seeds of the oxeye daisy arrived in some packages from London. In the course of a few years, oxeye had taken entire possession of the island. It is a perennial, and also seeds plentifully, and is therefore more difficult to destroy. Both the latter and the yellow corn marigold (_Chrysanthemum segetum_) are now affected by the æsthetic world, and are assuming importance as articles of commerce, thousands of bunches being disposed of on market-days at Covent Garden.