168 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST 



and is regarded by the Government as "the most notorious 

 of all weeds and one tiiat causes greater monetary loss than 

 any other single species." It comes originally from Europe 

 but is now quite at home in America having spread widely 

 in the Northern States but with, as yet, no disposition to in- 

 vade the South. It is an active agent in tlie spread of the 

 red rust of wheat but its eradication has none of the specta- 

 cular features connected with it that are attached to 

 the pursuit of the common barberry and it therefore appears 

 to be immune from the attacks of tlie young college graduate. 

 Legislators may legislate against the thistle but they know bet- 

 ter than to go after tlie quack-grass. The latter simply 

 defies the farmer, the barberry eradicator and everybody else. 

 It will grow in any kind of soil, and spreads rapidly by slen- 

 der under-ground runners. When once established it is next 

 to impossible to eradicate. Plowing only serves to scatter the 

 runners and spread the plant more widely. Hand weeding 

 might in time be successful but if one relaxes his efforts for 

 a single season, back comes the quack grass as bad as ever. 

 Buckwheat and hemp, however, have the reputation of being 

 able to smother it. It makes a fair grade of hay and like 

 its close relative, wheat, its seeds may be used as human food. 

 Flour has also been made from the underground runners, and 

 these are said to have been so used in Bavaria during the great 

 war. Notwithstanding the abundance of quack grass in 

 America we annually import some 250,000 pounds of it, the 

 supply coming mostly from Germany. From ten to twenty 

 cents aJ pound is paid for it. The imported grass is used in 

 medicine under the name of dog-grass or as the physician is 

 fond of writing it ''radix graminis." 



Purslane with Double Flowers. — The common purs- 

 lane or pursley (Portulaca olcracea) is a well-known fat little 



