WEEDS 



WESTRINGIA 



3511 



which the land is sown, particularly in grass and grain 

 seeds. 



It does not follow that weeds are always an evil, even 

 when they are abundant. In autumn a good covering 

 of weeds may serve as an efficient cover-crop for the 

 orchard. They are likely to entail some extra care the 

 next year in order to prevent them from gaining a 

 mastery, but this extra care benefits the orchard at the 

 same time. It is, of course, far better to sow the cover- 

 crop oneself, for then the orchardist secures what he 

 wants and of the proper quantity and at the right 

 season: but a winter cover of weeds is usually better 

 than bare earth. 



From the above remarks it will be seen that weeds 

 are scarcely to be regarded as fundamental difficul- 

 ties in farming, but rather as incidents. In the most 

 intensive and careful farming the weeds bother the 

 least. There should be a careful oversight of all waste 

 areas, as roadsides and vacant lots. The greatest 

 difficulty arises on commons and waste land, not on 

 farms. 



Weeds are often troublesome in walks, particularly in 

 those made of gravel. If the walk were excavated 2 

 feet deep and filled with stones, rubble, or coal-ashes, 

 weeds cannot secure a foothold. It is particularly 

 important that gutters be not laid directly on the soil, 

 else they become weedy. There are various prepara- 

 tions that can be applied to walks to kill the weeds, 

 although, of course, they also kill the grass edgings if 

 carelessly applied. Strong brine, applied hot, is one 

 of the best (one pound of salt to one gallon of water). 

 There are also preparations of arsenic, vitriol, lime, and 

 sulfur, known as herbicides. For identification of 

 weeds and means of control, see Georgia's "Manual of 

 Weeds," New York, 1914. L. H. B. 



WEIGELA, WEIGELIA: DieniOa. 



WELDENIA (for Ludwig von Welden, an Austrian 

 army officer, wrote on natural history; 1780-1853). 

 Commdinacese. Tuberous-rooted herb, suitable for the 

 greenhouse: Ivs. numerous, grouped at the top of the St., 

 forming a sort of involucre about the fls.: cymes very 

 densely fasciculate, sessile among the Ivs. ; calyx sessile, 

 1^ in. or less long, membranaceous, long and laxly 

 tubular, often spathe-like, split, apex shortly 3-cleft; 

 corolla-tube slender, much longer than the calyx, lobes 

 broad, spreading, subequal; stamens 6; ovary ovoid. 

 One species. W. Candida, Schult. f. St. short, simple: 

 Ivs. 6-8, strap-shaped, 2-6 in. long, with folding bases, 

 pale green: fls. snow-white, 1 in. diam., solitary on erect 

 scapes. Mex. and Guatemala. B.M. 7405. 



WELFIA (named in honor of the English royal 

 family). Palmacese. Unarmed palm, with a thick tall 

 reed-like caudex, suitable for the warmhouse: Ivs. 

 terminal, pinnatisect; segms. coriaceous, strongly nar- 

 rowed at base, apex entire or acuminately cut, many- 

 nerved, plicate: spadices stout, pendulous; spathes 2, 

 deciduous: fls. in deep hexagonal depressions, monce- 

 cious; male asymmetrical, sepals lanceolate, acute, 

 petals broadly ovate, obtuse, stamens numerous, ovary 

 rudimentary; female about equaling the male, com- 

 pressed, sepals free, cymbiform-lanceolate, acuminate, 

 petals much larger, 2 lateral cymbiform wing-keeled, 

 dorsal narrower, flat, staminodes in a conical cup, 

 ovary conical-subulate, 3-celled: fr. oblong, compressed, 

 about 2 in. long, dark violet. Two species, Cent. 

 Amer. and Colombia. W. regia, H. Wendl. Up to 60 

 ft. high: Ivs. when young divided almost to the base 

 into a pair of oblong acuminate lobes, having a bronzy 

 tint, at length becoming pinnatisect, borne on slender 

 petioles; adult Ivs. about 20 ft. long, pinnae numerous, 

 narrow, unequal, decurrent on the angular rachis, 

 whitish beneath. G.C. 1870:764. P.M. 1873:60. I.H. 

 18:62. 



WELLINGT6NIA: Sequoia. 



WELWITSCHIA (Dr. Friedrich Welwitech, 1806- 

 1872, botanical traveler, who brought this remarkable 

 plant to notice). Gnetacese. One of the most singular of 

 plants, sometimes seen in the dried state in museums 

 and rarely grown in botanic gardens. 



The plant consists essentially of 2 persistent woody 

 Ivs. lying near or on the ground, the ends becoming 

 much frayed (at one tune supposed to be persistent 

 cotyledons), and from the center or crown the cone- 

 like fructification arises. It may be described as 

 follows: A low woody plant, sometimes grown as an 

 oddity: st. or trunk thick, cone- or top-shaped, usu- 

 ally somewhat raised above ground, more or less 2- 

 lobed, said to be sometimes 14 ft. in circum.: Ivs. 2, 

 lasting the life of the plant, linear at first, later split- 

 ting into many sections: infl. axillary, paniculate, 

 dichotomously branched, the branches ending hi 4- 

 angled ament-like spikes which are colored: fls. dice- 

 cious; male fls. with 4 perianth-segms. in the shape of a 

 cross, stamens 6, joined at the base, seed sterile; 

 perianth of female fls. tubular, inclosing completely 

 the fertile seed. One species, arid places Trop. and 

 S. W. Afr. 



The oldest actual name for this strange plant is 

 Tumboa, which was mentioned incidentally in the 

 Gardeners' Chronicle, 1861, page 75, in a running 

 account of a meeting of the Linnean Society; and the 

 name T. Bainesii, Hook, f., was similarly mentioned 

 on page 1008 in an account of a meeting of the Royal 

 Horticultural Society. In the same journal in 1862 the 

 name T. strobttifera was also mentioned. Neither the 

 genus nor the species was botanically defined. In 

 Gardeners' Chronicle for 1862, the name Welwitschia 

 was proposed, and under this name the characters were 

 carefully drawn and the plant regularly described in 

 Trans. Linn. Soc., 1863, and in the same year hi B.M. 

 5368, 5369. Under this name the plant has passed; but 

 in Engler & Prantl, Pflanzenfamilien Nachtr. (1897), 

 attention is called to the older Tumboa as the proper 

 name, and this name is taken up in Cat. Welwitsch 

 Afr., pi. II, pt. 1 (1899). All the preceding literature 

 is under Welwitschia and all the horticultural refer- 

 ences; and inasmuch as the aim in nomenclature is, or 

 should be, stability rather than priority, the principle 

 of long-accepted usage should be invoked in this case 

 and the name Welwitschia retained, particularly as 

 the name Tumboa was not formally founded and as 

 the revival of it contributes nothing to clearness or 

 definition. (It is retained by the Brussels Congress.) 



In respect to the cultivation of Welwitschia, W. 

 Watson, Curator of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 

 England, writes hi 1916: "We have a plant here 

 which was raised from a seed hi 1880. It lives, but 

 growth is very slow, so slow that a full-sized plant, 

 such as we have hi our Museum, might at this rate be 

 reckoned a thousand years old. We grow it hi a 

 tropical house devoted to succulents, where it gets all 

 the sunlight, the usual amount of water, except for 

 about three months in winter, when it gets very little, 

 and it is potted hi sandy loam. There may be a set of 

 conditions that would suit the plant better, though 

 experiments with other plants raised here since did not 

 reveal anything better." 



mirabilis, Hook, f . Lvs. 6 ft. or more long, the split 

 ends reclining on the ground, flat and long-narrow, 

 attached at the base to the crown of the wrinkled brown 

 and hard trunk: plant said to persist a century. G.C. 

 in. 47:56. J.H. III. 46:38. G.W. 9, pp. 294-5. 



L. H. B. 



WESTRINGIA (J. P. Westrmg, Swedish physician 

 and author; died 1833). Labiate. Shrubs, suitable for 

 greenhouse cult., although apparently not now hi com- 

 mon cult.: Ivs. in whorls of 3, 4, or rarely more, entire* 



