Weeds
The growth of most things comes slowly to a standstill at the end of the season and even the horse's tail fails to appear again if pulled in autumn. One can harvest chickweed and groundsel and think with justification that lasting good has been done, but horse's tail, as they say in my locality, goes down to the devil. It is, I believe, one of the earliest forms of plant life, conditioned to survive in circumstances where anything else would die. Its hard stem breaks at a slight tug. Unearthing a root from loosened soil one digs down and discovers that the next segment comes from the subsoil. In the sub- soil the shape is more flattened and the colour rusty. The tail twists and turns in such a way that it is impossible to trace its origin. ' Couch grass is the only equal of horse's tail in its ability to grow and spread from a neglected fragment. We have both in our garden and I have been waging war on them for years. At the moment all I can claim is that, it being autumn, they are both nowhere to be seen. By next spring couch grass and horse's tail will be making headway against my best efforts.
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