322 WEEDS OF AOniCDLTURE. 



Mr. Woodward, "That he examhied some hundreds of plants 

 of the arvensis, in the corn fields, at Berkhamstead, in 

 Hertfordshire." The plant of course is shrubby and peren- 

 nial, but it deserves to be closely examined into, why it is 

 that the roots are not destroyed by fallowing ? Is it owing 

 to the great depth to which they penetrate, or to their fibrous 

 minuteness, like nettles ? Also it seems to require consider- 

 ation, that in a very great number of fields it has certainly 

 been destroyed ; and why, therefore, it should yet be com- 

 mon in others ? The rest-harrow is still met with in poor 

 gravelly soils, which have been long arable. It escapes 

 both plough and harrow, from the extreme toughness and 

 length of its root, requiring a mattock to grub it up. 



3. SAW-WORT (cardaus arvensis). Leaves sessile, pinna- 

 tified, spiny; stem panicled ; calyxes ovate, spinulose. 



The common way-thistle, or pasture thistle; but also a 

 very bad perennial weed on rather light loams, and loose, 

 strong soils. Indeed, it grows almost everywhere, and loves 

 mellow clay, and seemingly wet clay quite as well ; but it is 

 more easily subdued on good strong loams than on such 

 soils as are either very loose or very wet. It seems quite 

 impossible wholly to destroy this weed by any exertions of 

 tillage which arc consistent with due attention to profit. 

 We can do no better in any case than give a good naked 

 fallow ; after which a good many of these weeds may rise 

 the next year with the wheat ; for that season they should be 

 carefully hand-weeded, if the soil be open : if it be clay, they 

 will not draiv, but must be cut close with a spud. If neg- 

 lected, there is no weed more unsigiitly or injurious; the 

 second growth, on loose soils, often gets into the reapers' 

 hands ; but the first, if not destroyed, will overtop the wheat, 

 bearing innumerable clusters of flowers, and shedding their 

 winoed seeds in most noxious abundance. 



The roots of this weed are sometimes called vermicidar, 

 but whether this is because they creep invisibly, and spread 

 in an unaccountable manner, is not mentioned. We have 

 generally understood vermicular roots to mean those creeping 

 roots which are very crooked, and lie much curled together. 



