50 THE AMERICAN BOTANIST. 



the thick roots both palatable and nourishing and used them 

 in soups. A single ounce of the dried root is said to be suf- 

 ficient for a meal. The bitter root is own cousin to the "pus- 

 ley" and portulacca of our fields and flower gardens and has 

 the same fleshy leaves but these commonly die before the rosy 

 flowers appear. 



The True Shamrock. — "Irish botanists of note, including 

 Keough, Theilkeild and others assert that all history, romance, 

 sentiment and common sense unite in designating Trifolium 

 repens as the true Irish shamrock. The weight of evidence is 

 in its favor and the studied effort of late years to make it Tri- 

 folium minus seems to have very little ground to stand on. 

 If one imports a piece of Irish sod with clover on it one has a 

 right to sell it for pieces of eight ; but outside of that, anyone 

 with Trifolium repens can say with a clear conscience that he 

 has the real Irish shamrock." — Horticulture. [The Trifolium 

 repens, here mentioned is, of course, our common white clover 

 of lawn and door yards. — Ed.] 



Weeds Killed by Chemicals. — Between the weeds and 

 the bugs, the farmer's life in the growing season is made a 

 strenuous one. The bugs however, have been pretty well over- 

 come by the use of various poisons and the question now is, 

 can weeds be eradicated by similar means. While weeds do 

 not eat up the crops, as the bugs do, they are quite as serious 

 a menance to our food-plants. They rob the growing plants of 

 light and heat, they take from the soil a great quantity of the 

 soil water, they prevent light rains from reaching the soil at 

 all and when the crops are harvested the presence of weed 

 seeds lessens the price at which they can be sold. In recent 

 years many experiments have been made in spraying crops 

 with various chemicals designated to kill the weeds and leave 

 the crops unharmed. One of the most valuable of these 

 chemicals is sulphate of iron. When sprayed on fields of grow- 



