PLATE 15. 

 COMMON CHICKWEED. SUllaria media. Smith. 



Other English uame : Chickweed. 



Othar Latin names : Alsinc media, L. ; Stellaria media, With. 



Introduced. Annual. Succulent, diffusely branching, decumbent. 

 Roots hair-like and exceedingly tough. Leaves ovate, the lower ones with 

 ciliate-huiry petioles. Stems bearing a conspicuous stripe of articulated 

 hairs down one side. Flowers I inch in diameter, .star-shaped, numerous, 

 solitary from the axils of the leaves, in old plants in terminal leafy cymes ; 

 petals white, about the length of' the thin-margined calyx lobes. Capsules 

 conic-ovoid, spreading or deflexed, longer than the calyx. Seeds [Plate 53. 

 %• 12 — ^natural size and enlarged 8 times] small, -.^^ of an inch in diameter; 

 wedge-kidney-shaped, flattened and coarsely tube'rculate, the tubercles ar- 

 ranged in regular curved rows, about 5 on each side and 4 on the edge. Col- 

 our, yellowish brown to dark brown. 



Time of Floivering : At all times of the year, except during frost ; seed 

 ripening continuously. 



Propagation. By seed. 



Occurrence : This well known little weed occurs in all parts of Canada 

 where the soil is moist and rich. 



Injury : Choking out smaller and weaker plants, including seedlings 

 of all crops. A persistent grower requiring constant hoeing to keep it down. 

 Seeds often found in grass and clover seeds. 



Remedy : Constant hoeing. 



An occasional weed in the Maritime Provinces is the Gkass-le.wed or 

 Lesser Stitchwort, Stellaria graminea, L., a wide branching plant 1 to 2 

 feet high, with many grassy leaves in pairs along the slender stems anci 

 bearing many starry white flowers nearly i inch across. The seeds [Plate 

 53, fig. 13 — twice nat. size and enlarged 8 times] are often found in clover and 

 grass seeds; they are of the same size but more nearly circular in outline 

 and rounder in contour than_ those of the Common Chickweed; the surface 

 markings are quite diiferent; instead of tubercles, the surface is thickly 

 covered with short curved ridges in more or less regular rows. 



Somewhat similar to the Common Chickweed but easily distinguished 

 from it, are the Mouse-ear duckweeds, two or three of which occur in Can- 

 ada as agricultural weeds. These are plants of much the same habit as the 

 above, but covered all over with downy hairs, which in some species are 

 glandular, giving a dirty appearance to the plants by reason of the dust 

 which adheres to them. 



The Common Mouse-e.4R Chickweed, Cerastium. vulgatum, li., is a 

 perennial plant which occurs in cultivated land, pastures and lawns through- 

 out Canada. The pods are much elongated and curved upwards. The 

 seeds [Plate 53, fig. 14— natural size and enlarged 8 times] resemble those 

 of the Common Chickweed but have the tubercles fewer, less regularly ar- 



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