WEEDS OF AGRICULTURE. 341 



10. COMMON FUMITORY (fumaria officinalis). Pen- 

 carps one-seeded, racemed; stem diffuse. Root annual; 

 flowering all the summer. 



This is a very common weed on certain light, saudy soils; 

 it indicates the want of manure, and the neglect of the drill 

 or row mode of culture. Although cattle and sheep are said 

 to cat it, yei: I never could observe, in the course of my 

 experience, any disposition in these animals to touch the 

 plant. 



11. SAND MUSTARD, Isle of Thanet Stinkweed fs/z/ap/s 

 muralis). Pods ascending on spreading stalks, Hnear, 

 compressed, slightly beaked ; seeds two-ranked ; leaves 

 sinuated ; stems roughish, with reflexed bristles. 



Since the above was sent to the press, wc had an oppor- 

 tunity of observing this troublesome weed in the Isle of 

 Thanet, to which it seems to be confined. An experienced 

 agriculturist and extensive farmer (I. A. Champion, Esq. of 

 Sarr) informs us, that about twenty years since he remem- 

 bers seeing this weed at Broadstairs, where it was then 

 chiefly confined to the margins of lands lying nearest to the 

 beach. It was said that a vessel laden with corn had been 

 cast away on that part of the coast, and that this noxious 

 weed had been by that means introduced into the Isle of 

 Thanet. Since the time above mentioned, it has overrun 

 the arable land all over the Isle. 



Mr. Pitt, in the Introduction to his Essay on Weeds, 

 informs us, that where weeds cover the surface, there is no 

 room for corn ; and that where they abound and contend 

 with the corn, they take up the nourishment which the corn 

 should have ; and lastly, if weeds be not destroyed, they 

 spoil the crops, and deteriorate the soil. With regard to 

 the identity of the nourishment absorbed by corn and by 

 weeds, there may be some doubt, as it appears by continual 

 experience, that you need only plough and pulverize to liave 

 crops of weeds for ever. It is not so with corn. And more- 

 over it is equally certain, that poor soils, and those over- 

 cropped, abound with weeds much mote th;in t'lc same soils 



