DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 225 



smaller, sessile; flowers purple, borne in long drooping 

 racemes; corolla spotted. Native to Europe, but widely 

 naturalized in the Pacific Northwest. 



Purslane, Speedwell, Neckweed (Veronica peregrina, 

 L.). Glabrous, glandular, or nearly smooth, branching 

 annual ; floral leaves like those of the stem but reduced ; 

 flowers axillary and solitary, white ; capsule orbicular. 

 A common weed in fields in eastern North America from 

 Nova Scotia to Florida, Missouri, Kansas and Texas. Also 

 in South America and in Europe, almost cosmopolitan. 



Broom-rape Family (Orobanchaceae). Low, thick, 

 fleshy herbs, destitute of leaf green, with parasitic leaves 

 reduced to alternate scales ; flowers perfect, irregular, 

 sessile, solitary or on terminal, bracted spikes ; calyx per- 

 sistent, four to five-toothed or four to five-cleft; corolla 

 gamopetalous, more or less two-lipped ; stamens five, 

 didynamous, inserted on the tube of the corolla and alter- 

 nate with its lobes, occasionally a fifth rudimentary 

 stamen ; ovary superior, one-celled ; ovules numerous ; 

 embryo minute. About 200 species of wide distribution, 

 one species in the West being a common parasite on 

 sage. 



Broom Rape (Orobanche minor, Sm.). A parasitic, 

 pubescent herb, pale yellowish brown in color ; five inches 

 to one foot in height; flowers loosely spicate, purplish 

 tinged; calyx cleft; corolla two-lipped. Introduced from 

 Europe; parasitic on clover on -the coast. 0. ramosa, L., 

 is much like the preceding, but more slender and more 

 freely branched ; flowers light blue or yellow. Intro- 

 duced from Europe. Parasitic on tomato in New Jersey 

 and on hemp and tobacco. 



Plantain Family (Plantaginaceae). Mostly stemless 

 herbs, with alternate, or opposite leaves in species hav- 

 ing stems ; flowers small, polygamous or monoecious ; 

 calyx four-parted, persistent ; corolla four-lobed, hypogy- 

 nous; stamens four or only one, inserted on the throat 



