WEEDS OF ARABLE LAND 83 



being covered with hooked bristles ; while the inner 

 are warty." 1 



This plant (Fig. 20) should be cut down regularly 

 before seeding takes place, and if this be done it will be 

 materially reduced in two or three years. 



Fool's Parsley (/Ethusa Cynapium L.), described at 

 p. 298, is an annual weed of gardens and arable land 

 generally. In North Lincolnshire it appears to be very 

 annoying on the low clayey peaty alluvium, and is 

 difficult to eradicate, even a bare fallow in 1908 failing 

 to reduce it effectively, the wheat crop in 1909 being 

 full of it. As the weed is an annual, two successive 

 root crops should materially reduce it, if hoeing be 

 regularly and faithfully practised. Fool's Parsley is 

 poisonous, and should be hoed out or hand pulled 

 wherever it appears. 



RUBIACE^E 



Cleavers (Galiimi Aparine L.), commonly termed 

 Goose-grass, Cliver, Hariff, Gliders, Clithe, Grip-grass, 

 or Catch-weed, is a weak hook-climber which occurs 

 on all soils on arable land, in hedges and waste places. 

 This weed (Fig. 2 1) is a straggling annual, often climbing 

 several feet with sufficient support, and forming tangled 

 masses amongst other vegetation. The stems are four- 

 angled, and bear small, stout hooked hairs, by means of 

 which the weed obtains support on other plants ; the 

 leaves are narrow and lanceolate, \ to 2 inches long, 

 and arranged in whorls of six to eight ; the small flowers 

 appearing in June and July are white, in small clusters, 

 and grow from the axils of the leaves; the large, roundish, 

 two-lobed fruits are purplish, very rough, and adhere 

 closely to the clothes of man or the fur of animals, by 



1 Johns, Flowers of the Field. 



