WEEDS OF A(;R1CULTURK. 339 



6. CAMOMILE FEVERFEW (matrkana chamomiUa), 



Receptacles conical ; rays expanding; calyx scales 

 equal at the edge. Root annual ; flowering from May 

 till August, 



7. FAT HEN, Lamb's Quarters, Wild Spinach, Mountain 



Spinach (chenopodittm album). Leaves rhomboid-ovate, 

 jagged, mealy, entire towards the base, upper ones 

 oblong-entire; seed quite smooth. To which might be 

 added, May-weed ; but as it frequently rises into the 

 sickle, it has been entered under the head of Rampant 

 Weeds. 



8. COMMON CORN SALAD, or Lamb's Lettuce (fedia 



but chiefly for reclaiming waste, barren sands. Mr. James Booth, of 

 the Flotbeck Nurseries, Hamburgh, informs me, that its effects in this 

 last respect are found to be highly beneficial. This may probably be 

 accounted for as follows:- The plant is an annual of rapid growth, 

 and derives its chief nourishment from the air; it is consequently 

 very succulent, affording but little vegetable fibre in proportion to its 

 contained juices. It will grow on sands, where scarcely any other 

 plant will vegetate. Its growth is so quick as to afford two or three 

 crops in the season. Sheep are stated to be fond of it. When the 

 plants are full grown, which will sometimes happen in four or five 

 weeks from the time of sowing, particularly if sown after the warm 

 weather commences, the plants may be ploughed in, and another 

 crop of seed sown ; when the plants are again full grown, let the pro- 

 cess be repeated. But should the sand produce the plants sufficientlv 

 large to afford a regular bite to sheep, then depasturing will be found 

 most beneficial. In this last case, the sand must be ploughed after 

 the sheep have eaten down the spurry ; and by fresh crops, depastur- 

 ing, and ploughing in, the soil will soon be so far improved, as to 

 carry the permanent grasses adapted for light soils. The sand will 

 then bear permanent depasturing ; it will be consolidated, by the feet 

 of the sheep, and this, with the manure supplied by the sheep, will 

 by degrees perfect a sheep-down. In order that the proprietors, jn 

 this country, of the above description of waste sands, might have an 

 opportunity of trying the effects of the spergula sativn, as above 

 mentioned, a supply of the seed from Germany is obtained, and may 

 now be had of Messrs. Cormack and Co., Nurserymen, New Cross, 

 near London. 



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