90 REPOKT OF THE COMMISSIONEE OF AGRICULTURE. 



Echhim vulgar e (blue-weed, blue-thistle, bugloss). 



A biennial plant, of the order Borraginacece. 



The stem is from 2 to 3 feet high, rough, hairy, and leafy. The 

 leaves vary from lanceolate to linear, the lower ones 5 to 8 inches 

 long, becoming shorter above, the uppermost bractlike and shorter 

 than the flowering racemes. Like the stem, they are roughened with 

 stiff whitish hairs, which have a stinging quality. The upper part 

 of the stem, sometimes for more than half its length, bears numer- 

 ous short, axillary si3ikes or racemes of flowers. These racemes are 

 1 to 3 inches long, and are coiled backward in bud, but straighten 

 out as they expand. The flowers are rather crowded, and consist of 

 a 5-lobed or cleft calyx, and a somewhat bell-shaped corolla about 

 an inch long, which is purplish at first but changing to a light blue. 

 When in full flower the plant has a handsome appearance. The 

 nutlets, of which there are about 4 in each flower, are small, round- 

 ish, and rough, with a peculiar appearance, which has been likened 

 to a viper's head. This plant is a native of Europe and Asia, but has 

 become extensively naturalized along roadsides, in waste grounds 

 and fields, principally in the Middle Atlantic States. (Plate XIII.) 



Rumex acetosella, (sheep sorrel, field sorrel). 



This small plant belongs to the order Polygonacece, or the family 

 which contains the wild buckwheats and the docks. It multiplies 

 raf)idly by underground runners or roots. The stems are seldom 

 more than 15 or IG inches high, and are slender, erect, somewhat 

 angular, and furrowed. The leaves are rather distant on the stem; 

 the root and lower stem-leaves are on long and slender petioles, the 

 upper ones becoming short-stalked or sessile. They have the pecul- 

 iar form which is called hastate, that is, arrow-shaped, with the 

 lobes spreading outward, or at right angles to the main part. Some- 

 times in the upper leaves the lobes are wanting. 



The flowers are in racemes, at small distances apart, and in whorls 

 of 3 to 6, nodding on the very short pedicels. The plant is of the 

 kind called dioecious; that is, all the flowers of one plant are of one 

 sex, either male or female. The flowers are very small, and in the 

 male plants consist of the calyx of 6 sepals, 3 inner and 3 outer ones, 

 and 6 stamens. In the female plants (and these are said to be larger 

 than the male plants) the calyx is the same, but in place of the 

 stamens, the small ovary, with its feathery stigmas, is seen, the ovary 

 finally enlarging to form the 3-angled fruit. This sorrel is a native 

 of Europe, but has become extensively naturalized in our country. 

 It is often stated that the presence of sorrel is an indication of an 

 unusual amount of acid in the soil, and that an application of lime 

 or other alkali eradicates the sorrel by correcting the acidity. Such 

 is not the case. Sorrel is generally most abundant on poor, light 

 land, where little else will groAv. An application of lime or other 

 fertilizer enables other plants to grow and crowd out the sorrel. 



Plate XIV, Fig. 1, a male floAver magnified; Pig. 2, a female flower 

 magnified. 



Lychnis Githago (corn-cockle, or cockle). 

 A rather showy annual plant, belonging to the same family as the 

 pink and sweet-william. It is a native of Europe, from whence it 

 has been introduced with grain, and is now too commonly found in 

 fields of wheat and rye. 



