REPORT OF THE BOTANIST. 91 



Tlio plant is from 2 to 4 feet high, sparingly branched above. The 

 leaves are narrowly lanceolate, 3 to 5 inches long, less than half an 

 inch wide, gradually tapering to a point, entire, thick, and, like the 

 branches and calyx, covered with fine soft hairs. They are in single 

 pairs at the base of each branch and opposite _ each other. The 

 branches are slender, naked, and terminated with single flowers, 

 which are 2 to 2-2- inches long when expanded. 



The calyx is 10-ribbed. and divided into 5 linear lobes, similar to 

 the leaves, and longer than the corolla, which consists of 5 obcor- 

 date petals of a reddish-purple color, and about 1-^ inches long. 

 There are 10 stamens and 5 styles. The ovary develops into a 

 roundish-oblong pod, filled with numerous dark-purple seeds, which 

 under a lens are beautifully ribbed and roughened. 



In regard to the comparative injury to wheat by cockle and chess 

 a grain-dealer of Michigan writes : 



In this State there is much more chess in wheat than cockle, but it is screened 

 out easily, whereas cockle is very difficult to screen out, as it is as heavy and has 

 nearly as large a berry as wheat. The chess is of no value, while the presence of 

 cockle makes the flour of low grade, 



A grain-dealer at Duluth, Minn., writes, December 30, 188G, con- 

 cerning cockle : 



Its effect on the gi'ade of wheat as inspected here is serious. We had one car, 

 which contained No. 1 hard wheat (our highest grade here), reduced to rejected 

 (which is next to the lowest grade) solely on account of cockle. That would make 

 a reduction in price of at least 15 cents per bushel. 



A Minneapolis (Minn. ) miller writes : 



Cockle runs from 1 to 5 pounds to the bushel, 5 pounds being an extreme per- 

 centage. It is abolutely impossible to clean all the cockle out of the wheat, as 

 it is so near the weight of the berry. Chess is found in winter-wheat sections, and 

 can be all cleaned out of the wheat, as it is light, and can be handled to much better 

 advantage than the cockle. 



Sow a portion, at least, of the crop with perfectly clean seed on 

 land where no grain grew the year before. Use this for the next 

 year's seeding. In a few years the crop will be free from cockle. If, 

 when clean seed is obtained, it is offered to surrounding growers, the 

 area free from this weed may be extended, so as to lessen the liability 

 of its being again introduced. 



Plate XV, Fig. 3, a section through the ovary; Fig. 3, a seed mag- 

 nified. 



Chenopodium album (pig- weed, lamb's quarters). 

 This very common weed is of variable size, sometimes in good soil 

 growing 5 or 6 feet high, in other circumstances reaching onlj^ 1 or 2 

 feet. The stem is rather stout and angular, and much branched. 

 The leaves are on rather long and slender petioles, and vary from 1 

 to 3 inches in length, of an oblong or ovate form, the larger ones 

 coarsely and irregularly toothed, the smaller ones narrow and mostly 

 entire. The flowers are in small roundish clusters, at short distances 

 apart, on slender spikes or racemes, which terminate the branches. 

 The flower clusters are covered with a whitish mealy powder, and in 

 many cases this raealiness extends also to the leaves. The individual 

 flowers are very small, consisting of a five-cleft calyx, 5 stamens, and 

 an ovary with 2 styles. The flower is destitute of a corolla. The 

 mature ovary or seed is round in outline, but much flattened and 

 lens-shaped, smooth, shining, and black, inclosed in a thin green 



