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Home Nature-Study Course, 



Its flowers are dioecious', 

 which big word means that the 

 flowers that have the pollen- 

 bearing stamens grow on one 

 plant, and those that have 

 pistils and perfect the seed, 

 grow on another. They grow 

 in tall, slim, nodding red spikes, 

 and the single, tiny, three cor- 

 nered seed grows so far be- 

 yond the three calyx lobes which 

 enfold it that it is thrust out, 

 half uncovered, by the time it 

 is ripe, ready to fall into the 

 soil. Liming and enriching the 

 soil, with a crop rotation, will 

 destroy the weed. 



Broad-leaved Dock (R. obtusi- 

 jolins). — This is a big coarse 

 relative of the little field sor- 

 rel, much harder to fight and 

 very common, especially in soil 

 which is not kept under culti- 

 vation, as pastures and road- 

 •sides. Its big, thick, yellow, 

 spindle-shaped roots are some- 

 times two or three feet long, 

 and the plant may be from two 

 to four feet tall. Its big, veiny, 

 dark-green leaves, are often a 

 foot long and three to five 

 inches wide, rounded at both 

 ends, and with reddish veins. 

 They have queer stipules; 

 they are called ochreaie, which 

 means" like a boot," and they 

 do enclose the main stem of the 

 plant above the leaf, like the 

 leg of a boot. The greenish flowers have no petals, but six stamens and a pistil 

 with three tufted stigmas. There are six sepals in double rows of three; the 

 three inner ones are shaped like a heart, beautifully veined, and grow together 

 over the seed, giving it triple wings. And the number of seeds is legion for they 

 hang in crowded whorls on tall racemes or spikes which may be a foot or more 

 in length. Each seed is three-sided, with rounded tips, like a tiny brown buck- 

 wheat kernel, a grain that is a nobler relative of the dock. Birds are very fond 

 of the seeds and forage on the tall, brown, weather-beaten spikes all winter. 



Either digging out or frequent and deep cutting with a spud so as to starve 

 the roots of the starch manufactured by the leaves, is necessary to conquer this 

 sturdy perennial. 



Broad-leaved dock 



