WEEDS OF ARABLE LAND 113 



Henbit or Henbit Dead Nettle (Laniium amplexi- 

 caule L.) occurs in arable land and waste places, 

 especially on sandy soils. It is a small, branched 

 annual, under a foot high, with the lower leaves roundish 

 on long stalks, the upper kidney-shaped and clasping 

 the stem hence the specific name amplcxicaule. The 

 flowers, which open from May to August, are small, 

 slender, downy, rosy or crimson, and in rather distant 

 whorls. 



White Dead Nettle (Lamium album L.) is closely 

 related to the foregoing species, but the leaves are all 

 stalked, the whole plant is more or less hairy, the 

 flowers large, about i inch long, white, and in whorls 

 of six to ten. The rootstock is branched and creeping. 

 The flowers are found from May to December. This 

 Dead Nettle is a common weed of arable land and 

 waste places. It is perennial. 



The four species described should all be eradicated 

 by persistent hoeing, hand pulling, the use of root 

 crops, and, in the case of Z,. album, the removal and de- 

 struction of the creeping rootstock. Surface cultivation 

 will destroy large numbers of the seedlings. 



PRIMULACE^: 



Scarlet Pimpernel (Anagallis arvensis L.), well known 

 as the Poor- Man's Weather-glass, from the habit of the 

 scarlet flowers of closing in dull and opening in fine 

 weather, is a widely distributed and abundant annual 

 of arable land, more especially on sandy and calcareous 

 loams. The small branched plant has stems 6 to 18 

 inches long, smooth, and more or less prostrate. The 

 leaves are small, sessile, nearly oval, and dotted beneath ; 

 the round scarlet flowers, opening in fine weather 

 between May and October, grow from the axils of 



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