80 



THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



Fig. 46. Showing flower, fruit and seed. 

 (After Britton and Brown.) 



40. ALSINE MEDIA L. Common Chickweed. (A. I. 2.) 



Spreading or half erect, tufted, much branched, 4-12 inches long; 



smooth except a line of hairs along the stem ; leaves oval, to 2 inches 



long, the upper sessile. Flowers very 

 small, white, the petals 2-parted, shorter 

 than the calyx. Capsule egg-shaped, 

 longer than the calyx; seeds brown, 

 kidney-shaped, flattened, 1/24 inch 

 across, the sides coarsely tuberculate. 

 (Figs. 12, h and 46.) 



Frequent in rich moist soil in 

 gardens, lawns, meadows and pas- 

 tures. Jan. Dec. A winter annual, 

 blooming at all seasons. In some 

 places used as a barometer as it ex- 

 pands its flowers fully when fine 

 weather is to follow but "if it 

 should shut up, then the traveler is 

 to put on his great coat." In Eu- 

 rope it is much used for feeding 

 cage-birds, which are very fond of both seed and leaves. Remedies : 

 early and thorough spring cultivation ; reseeding lawns ; crowd- 

 ing out by some winter-growing crop, as rye or crimson clover. 



THE CROWFOOT OR BUTTERCUP FAMILY. RANUNCULACE^E. 



Annual or perennial herbs with acrid sap ; leaves usually alter- 

 nate, often compound. Flowers with the parts all distinct and 

 unconnected; petals 3-15, sometimes wanting, in which case the 

 calyx is colored like the corolla ; sepals the same number, often 

 falling when unfolding; stamens numerous; ovaries 1-many, 1- 

 celled, usually 1 -seeded. Fruit of our weeds an achene. (Fig. 

 14, /, g.) 



About 50 species of the family occur in Indiana. Among them 

 are many of our common wild flowers of early spring and summer, 

 as the liverworts, marsh-marigolds, larkspurs, columbines, bane- 

 berries, anemones, clematis, buttercups and meadow-rues. Most of 

 these are harmless plants, covering the bare places of mother earth 

 with their green leaves and posies gay. "With us only one may as 

 yet be listed as a weed, though others of its kind occasionally 

 spread in low, wet pastures. 



41. RANUNCULUS ABOBTIVUS L. Small-flowered Crowfoot. Kidney-leaved 



Crowfoot. (B. N. 3.) 

 Stem erect, branching, glabrous; root-leaves thick, kidney- or heart- 



