Excerpt from Torreya, Vol. 30: A Bi-Monthly Journal of Botanical Notes and News; January February, 1930 Whence do they come? Many from the little vestiges Of original forest vegetation which still are plenty in and around Bronxville; some merely from my neighbors; some in packing or earth or seeds from distant sources; many from places not only unknown but even unconjectured. The point is that they come, some Of them every year, some Of them once only. One never knows in the spring what the coming summer will produce and every season brings a fresh surprise. Every strange seed ling is allowed to grow and is carefully watched until it is large enough to identify. That Often means waiting until they bloom, and that in turn may lead to a permanent occupant Of the garden where we had wished for a mere temporary one. In 1928 we were away during the entire growing season and had no idea Of what new visitors we may have received. The next year was accordingly Of exceptional interest, since we had the immigrants Of two years to become acquainted with. The systematic botanist likes to classify, and I shall arrange these visitors to my garden in three groups, mentioning many Of them by name and discussing some Of the more interesting ones in more detail. First, we have the ordinary weeds Of cultivated grounds. These plants doubtless migrate into my garden every year from my neighbors in all directions, or from street-sides and vacant lots, and for that matter, from my place to my neighbors as well. We are all very generous with our weeds. If by careful work I exterminate one species completely, I know it will be back next year anyway. There is no hope for their permanent banishment. All we can do is try to keep their numbers down to a minimum. These common weeds we shall have to classify further into those of flower-beds, hoed ground, and the bare soil under shrubbery, and those Of the lawn. The two groups are quite distinct in species. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.