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Home Nature-Study Course. 



loves the moist and shady spots 

 and creeps about at the feet of 

 taller and stronger plants. 

 Poultry and pigs are very fond 

 of it, the canary will leave his 

 seed-cup for a spray of it, and 

 the writer once saw a pair of 

 brown-hatted chipping-sparrows 

 gleefully gathering the seed cap- 

 sules from a large mat of it. It 

 has many relatives, the most 

 common of which is the Mouse- 

 ear or Field Chickweed, which is 

 perennial. 



Pigweeds. — Of these there are 

 two kinds, both annuals and 

 both among the most common 

 and annoying of weeds. One is 

 the Green Amaranth or Rough 

 Pig^veed. The word amaranth 

 means " unfading flower, " which 

 name it hardly deserves, for 

 though the tall weed does stand 

 bravely up against the winter 

 storms that scatter its seeds far 

 and wide, its leaves fall away 

 and the big plume-like panicle 

 of seed-vessels bleaches to a rusty 

 straw color. One wonders how 

 it got its common name for pigs 

 are not fond of it, nor are other 

 animals. Its stout stem is tough 

 and woody, its big, long-stem- 

 med, veiny, oval leaves are rough 

 and hairy, and every small greenish flower has three prickly bracts at its base. 

 There are many hundreds of flowers in each feathery head of bloom, and, of course. 

 hundreds of the tiny, glittering black seeds. Therefore, the plant should either 

 be cut or pulled up bodily before one of the multitude has a chance to ripen. The 

 Rough Pig^veed has some very gorgeous relatives in the flower garden; the tall 

 Prince's Feather and the gay, red Celosia or Cockscomb are AmaranJ;hs. 



The Smooth Pigweed or " Lamb's Quarters " belongs to a different family and 

 pigs really delight in it, champing its succulent stems and leaves with much gusto; 

 when young it is also cooked and eaten by people fond of " greens." Its book- 

 narae is Chenopodiiim albnm, the big word meaning " goosefoot," from the shape 

 of its leaves, though only the lower ones have that shape, the upper ones growing 

 more and more narrow till those at the top are almost lance-like. The weed grows 

 from two to six feet tall, its grooved and angled stem often beautifully striped 

 with green and purple, its small green flowers have no petals and grow in densely 

 crowded spiky panicles. The whole plant is often more or less covered with a 



The rough pigweed 



