WEEDS OP THE AMARANTH FAMILY. 



73 



"never fading" and was given these flowers by the Greeks on ac- 

 count of the dry unwithering nature of the showy bracts. In 

 Europe they are regarded as emblems of immortality, a quality set 

 forth by Milton in the lines wherein he speaks of the angels as- 

 sembled before the Deity : 



"To the ground, 



With solemn adoration, down they cast 



Their crowns, inwove with amaranth and gold. 



Immortal amaranth, a flower which once 



In Paradise, fast by the tree of life, 



Began to bloom." 



SO. AMARANTHUS RETBOFLEXUS L. Rough Pigweed. (A. I. 1.) 



Stem stout, branched, light green, erect or ascending, 1-8 feet high 

 from a pink tap-root; lower leaves ovate, long-stemmed, the upper lanceo- 

 late, pointed. Flowers green in dense sessile, terminal or axillary spikes 

 whi'ch are often \ inch thick; bracts awl-shaped, twice as long as the 5 

 oblong, spine-tipped sepals. Fruit or utricle thin, slightly shorter than 

 the sepals, the top falling away as a lid. Seeds very small, round, lens- 

 shaped, dark brown, smooth and shining. 



Abundant throughout the State in gardens, waste places and 

 cultivated fields. July-Oct. Occurring with the rough pigweed 



in gardens, and perhaps more com- 

 mon, is the slender pigweed or red- 

 root (A. hybridus L., Fig 40.) It is 

 also known as careless weed and dif- 

 fers in having the stem more slender, 

 often purplish, and springing from 

 a spindle-shaped purplish root, the 

 leaves smaller, bright green, wavy 

 margined and long stalked, and the 

 spikes much more slender, not over 

 inch thick, somewhat spreading or 

 drooping. Both species are often at- 

 tacked by a white mold that also at- 

 tacks beets. The seeds of both ripen 

 in early autumn, occur with those of 

 grain and grass, and are blown far 

 and wide over the snow. Remedies: 

 shallow cultivation ; thorough removal 

 before seeding of the weeds in corn 

 and potato fields and gardens; burn- 

 ing or pulling the seed-bearing plants from waste places, and 

 from fields before fall plowing. 



Fig. 40. 2 and 3, flowers; 4, utricle closed; 

 5, same with lid off . (After Vasey.) 



