1 72 FLOWERS OF WASTE PLACES, ETC. 



Essentially a weed of waste places, Shepherd's Purse is a familiar 

 sight wherever we turn on all ground which is not grass-grown, along 

 our highways, in the farmyard, on waste heaps, in gardens, stableyarcts, 

 and in the cornfield, or generally where open soil allows it to take a 

 hold: and when it does so it comes up freely, flowering all the year 



Photo. H. Hanley 



SHEPHERD'S PURSE (Capsella Bursa-pastoris, Medic.) 



round and forming abundant seed. To the farmer it is a pest, to the 

 botanist an instance of mutations of great interest. 



The Shepherd's Purse has the rosette habit, the leaves lying flat on 

 the ground, in a circle around the base of the stem, which is more or 

 less leafless above. The root is long, tapering. The plant is ex- 

 tremely variable in the form of the leaves as well as in the shape and 

 size of the pods. The stems are branched. The radical leaves are 



