WEEDS OF MAINE. 277 



gives one's premises a more slovenly appearance than the preva- 

 lence of nettles. Tall Nettle or Slender Nettle — -Urtica gracilis 

 — is, like the preceding, common in waste places, along fence 

 rows, and by the roadside. The stem grows from three to seven 

 feet high, four-sided, and slightly hispid with a few stinging hairs. 

 Leaves four to ten inches long, lanceolate sharply toothed along 

 the margin. Flowers green, in axillary branched panicles. 



Eichweed or Clearweed — Pilea pianila — is a low species with a 

 shining succulent stem, three to eighteen inches high, destitute of 

 stings ; leaves smooth, on long stalks ; flowers green, in short 

 clusters, A native weed, abundant in moist waste places, where , 

 it is cool and shady. 



Class II. INSIDE GEOWERS— Endogens. 



Order 34. AEOIDS — Arace.e. A small family of about 240 

 species, mostly tropical. "An acrid volatile principle pervades 

 the whole order, which is, in some instances, so concentrated as 

 to become poisonous. The corms and rhizomas abound in starch, 

 which in some cases, when the volatile acridity is expelled in dry- 

 ing or cooking, is edible and nutritious, as in Colocasia, and the 

 like."— (TFoo^.) 



104. Skunk Cabbage — Symplocarpusfcetidus. Root perennial, with fleshy fibres from 

 a thick truncate rhizoma. Acaulesctnt. Leaves appearing after flowering, at flrst round- 

 ish, becoming ovate and very large — often two feet long, and a foot wide Flowers in a 

 compact orbicular head, enclosed in a little hood or spadix. 



This native plant, found quite abundant in wet meadows and low 

 grounds, is quickly known by the strong skunk-like odor, which it 

 emits when bruised. 



105. Sweet Flag — Calamus — Acorus calamus. Root (rhizoma) perennial, thick and 

 spongy, very aromatic, as well as the rest of the plant. Leaves two to three feet high, 

 narrow, sword-shaped. Floivers in a sort of fleshy spike which issues from the side of a 

 leaflike scape, presenting a very curious appearance. 



The Sweet Flag — well known by its aromatic and pungent root- 

 stalk — frequently becomes quite troublesome, as it spreads exten- 

 sively. Thorough under-draining, and seeding with red-top or 

 herds-grass, will extirpate it. 



Order 35. TYPHADS — Typhace^. A small and unimportant 

 order, of about thirteen species. 



106. Common Cat-tail or Eeed-mace — TyphalatifoUa. Well known 

 to every one. Common along the muddy borders of ponds, and on 



