WEEDS OF AGllICULTURE. 313 



there were many tall horse knaps, and a sprinkling of thistles, 

 docks, ivild carrots, and such things, standing bolt upright 

 when the barley drooped with ripening. I doubt very much 

 whether any more weeding will be done in consequence of 

 the writing of this Essay : the breadths sown are very large, 

 and I suppose they have not women and children enough in 

 the villages to do what is wanted. 



10. ANNUAL SNAKEWEED (polygonum lapathifolium). 

 Pale Persicaria. Styles two, distinct ; stamens six ; 

 flower stalks rough ; stipulas beardless ; seeds concave 

 on each side. 



Called in the fens willow-weed, where it is one of the 

 worst weeds they have. It grows very freely on all loose 

 and deep soils, and on marshy lands, though it be scarcely 

 known to any of the cultivators of clay, and it is as rarely 

 to be seen on any sort of turnip land ; so that the greater 

 part of farmers will not be able to comprehend what plant is 

 meant. Botanists know it very well, but they do not know 

 it to be a destructive w eed ; accordingly, in Mr. Pitt's 

 Essay it is omitted. 



This plant grows from one foot to near three feet high, 

 but commonly from eighteen inches to two feet. Its stalks 

 are pale, or spotted, or reddish, the joints much swoln, and 

 the stalk appearing tender and succulent (something like 

 that of the balsam). The plant branches much when it has 

 free growth, and produces a great number of crowded spikes 

 of seed. The leaves resemble those of the willow, but are 

 charged with dark spots in the middle. The seeds are very 

 bright and heavy, round one way, but flat and indented on 

 one side ; the colour is black. This plant belongs to the 

 same genus in botany with buck-wheat and black bind- 

 weed ; and its seeds are highly nutritious, and very grateful 

 to birds, especially partridges, lapwings, &c. 



These seeds very much infest samples of fen corn, whether 

 wheat, oats, or barley. The skreen, indeed, discharges 

 much : and, with pardon be it spoken, I have seen sacks 

 filled with it, and shot into a dry ditch. Those who keep 



