PLATE 35. 



BLUEWEED, Echiuw vulgare, L. 

 (Mher Englisli names : Viper's Bugloss, Blue-tliistle, Bhie Devil. 



(Noxious : Dom.) 



Introduced. Biennial, with a deep black tap root. Whole plant bristly 

 hairy, the stiff bristles on the leaves from small pale prominences or tub- 

 ercles, those on the stem from red ones. Flowering stems erect and wand- 

 like, forming compound spikes of reddisli buds and bright blue flowers, 

 I to 2 feet high ; the spikelets curved round at the tips as usual in the Borage 

 family. Root leaves linear-oblong or linear-lanceolate, narrowed at base, 

 entire, bristly hairy above and below, 6 to 8 inches long, forming the first 

 year dense rosettes of long leaves lying flat on the ground ; leaves of the 

 flowering stems sessile. Flowers tubular-funnelform, rather irregular, witli 

 five rounded spreading lobes; calyx of 5 narrow bristly segments. Seeds 

 (nutlets) [Plate 56, fig. 69 — natural size and enlarged 4 times] 4 from each 

 flower, dark brown, J inch, irregularly angular-conical, hard and rough, 

 sharply angled on the inner face and rounded on the outer with a keel run- 

 ning from the sharp apex half way down the outer convex face ; basal scar 

 triangular, large and flat, acutely margined, with a small deep hole close to 

 the inner angle, having a little cone at the bottom; there are also two little 

 conical projections beyond the centre in line with the side angles. 



Time of Floicering : July to vSeptember; seed ripe August. 



Propagation : By seed. Spread by dead plants being blown by wind 

 in winter. 



Occurrence : Common by roadsides and in waste places throughout 

 Ontario and the eastern provinces. Chiefly on limestone and on gravelly 

 or poor soil. 



Injury : Most troublesome in rocky pastures. Seed occasionally foimd 

 ill clover and other crop seeds and as a bur in wool. 



Remedy: This biennal weed is easily destroyed on cultivated land 

 and is seldom seen in fields kept under crop, but is much dreaded and en- 

 quired about by farmers, presumably on account of its showy and weedy 

 appearance. 



Pigeon Weed, Lithoxpermtim arvenae, L. A seed which in form very 

 much resembles that of Blueweed, and which is much oftener found in com- 

 mercial seeds, is that of the Pigeon Weed, also called Red-root, Wheat- 

 thief and Field Gromwell. 



The size and general shape of the two seeds is similar. That of Pigeon 

 Weed [Plate 56, fig. 70 — natural size and enlarged 4 times] is rather less 

 angular and the surface is much smoother. Instead of having rough pro- 

 .lections, it is deeply and irregularly grooved, with prominent ridges between 

 the grooves. It may be easily recognized by the basal scar, which is oval or 



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