DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 



159 



or three-celled with many ovules. Few genera, with 

 about 200 species widely distributed. 



Slender Rush (Juncus tennis, WilldJ. A leafy peren- 

 nial with wiry stems eight to eighteen inches high ; leaves 

 flat or channeled ; flowers in panicles shorter than the in- 

 volucral leaves ; flowers green ; sepals lanceolate, acute, 

 spreading in fruit; capsules green; seeds small, minutely 

 ribbed ; common in eastern North Amer- 

 ica, especially in beaten paths. 



Lily Family (Liliaccac). Herbs or 

 rarely woody plants with regular, sym- 

 metrical flowers, perianth not glumace- 

 ous, of three sepals and three petals ; six 

 stamens ; ovary three-celled ; fruit a pod 

 or berry; embryo inclosed in the hard 

 albumen. An order of about 1,600 

 species containing several ornamental 

 plants, such as the lily, lily of the valley, 

 and yucca; some medicinal plants like 

 squill, aloe, false hellebore; several poi- 

 sonous plants, like death camas and col- 

 chicum and a number of weeds. 



Meadow Garlic (Allium canadense, 

 Kalm). Bulb ovoid; outer coat fibrous, 

 reticulated; scape one foot or more Fig. 96. Slender 

 high ; leaves narrowly linear, slightly rus . h (Juncus te- 

 convex beneath ; flowers in umbels often 

 bulbiferous, white or pinkish ; segments of perianth lance- 

 olate, equal or exceeding the stamens. Common in moist 

 meadows ; said to flavor milk when fed to dairy cows. 



Wild Garlic (Allium vincalc, L.). Bulb ovoid; scape 

 slender ; leaves several, terete and hollow, slender, chan- 

 neled above ; flowers in erect umbels, but often replaced 

 with small bulblets, which are tipped with an appendage; 

 flowers green or purple. Naturalized from Europe, common 

 in fields eastward, often giving a bad flavor to wheat flour. 



