WEEDS OF ARABLE LAND 



75 



a crop badly infested with the weed may be fed off 

 with sheep before the seeds are ripe. The weed is 

 also occasionally made into hay. Wolff quotes the 

 following analyses of Spurrey : l 



ILLECEBRACE.E 



Annual Knawel (Scleranthus annuus L.) is a small 

 tufted annual (or biennial) under a foot high, with 

 slender branched prostrate stems, nearly awl-shaped 

 leaves of about \ inch long, placed opposite one 

 another in pairs, and small green flowers in clusters 

 at the end of the stems or singly in the axils lower 

 down. The flowers open from June to September. 

 The fruits are one-seeded. This weed (Fig. 15) is 

 common on arable land, especially on light, sandy 

 soils, where it may prove troublesome. The seeds 

 are sometimes found in samples of clover and grass 

 seeds. 



When this weed is at all plentiful it should be hoed 

 out ; in corn crops, surface cultivation in spring (see p. 

 34) quickly reduces it. Crops which grow vigorously 



1 Farm Foods, pp. 300 and 302. 



