288 COMMON WEEDS 



When Corn Cockle occurs in cornfields it should be 

 eradicated, and strenuous attempts made to prevent it 

 reaching the seeding stage. Pure seed corn should 

 always be used. 



CELASTRACE^: 



The Spindle Tree (Euonymus europceus L.), the 

 generic name of which is taken from Euonyme, 

 " Mother of the Furies," occurs in copses and hedges, 

 often on chalk, from Roxburgh southwards. It is 

 stated by Hooker to be rare in Scotland and local in 

 Ireland. It grows from 5 to 20 feet in height, and is 

 a smooth and fetid shrub or tree. The leaves are 

 ovate-lanceolate in shape, 2 to 4 inches long, smooth, 

 in opposite pairs, with short stalks. The flowers, 

 which open in May and June, are one-third to one-half 

 an inch in diameter, and occur in clusters of five to ten 

 on stalks of an inch or more in length ; they are 

 greenish-white in colour. The bark is at first bright 

 green and smooth. The common name is derived 

 from the fact that the wood was formerly made into 

 spindles. 



This plant is poisonous in all its parts, but the berries 

 are especially so. Children have suffered from eating 

 the fruits, which are strongly purgative ; and Cornevin 

 states that sheep and goats have been injured by eating 

 the leaves. The poisonous principle is the glucoside 

 Euonymin. 



RHAMNE.E 



Common Buckthorn (Rhanmus catharticus L.) is a 

 shrub of 5 to 10 feet high, much branched, the 

 branches being opposite and spinous at the ends ; the 

 leaves are ovate and serrate ; the yellowish -green 

 flowers, under \ inch in diameter, may be solitary or 



