THE ROSE FAMILY 105 



plowing. It rapidly spreads and takes possession of rich, moist 

 pasture lands. 



Remedy: Repeated cutting, to prevent it from seeding, 

 will keep it in check. A handful of salt, applied after close 

 cutting in hot weather when the soil is quite dry, will kill the 

 root; this may be practicable on areas where the pest is not 

 very abundant. Hand-pulling is recommended for loose land 

 in which portions of the roots are not apt to break off and re- 

 main in the soil. If at all possible, land over-run with this 

 weed should be cleared and brought under cultivation with a 

 summer-fallow, entailing two or three plowings before it is put 

 under crop. Sheep are said to feed on the young and tender 

 plants when their favorite pasture grasses are short. 



ALLIED SPECIES: Meadow Sweet (Spiraea salicifolia L.) 

 in its several forms is occasionally met in low places, from Nova 

 Scotia westward to the Rocky Mountains, where it was found 

 by J. W. Macoun. It has tough, yellowish-brown stems, leaves 

 dentate like a fine saw; flowers white, arranged in contracted, 

 cylindrical panicles covered with matted, woolly hairs. 



And Fumitory too, a name 

 Which Superstition holds to fame, 

 Whose red and purple mottled Flowers 

 Are cropped by maids in weeding hours, 

 To boil in water, milk, and whey, 

 For washes on a holiday, 

 To make their beauty fair and sleek, 

 And scare the tan from Summer's cheek. 



Clare, 1820. 



And because ignorance is the chief cause of neglect of many rare things, which happen 

 to their view at sometimes, which are not to be seen again peradventure, or not in many 

 yeares after, I would heartily advise all men of meanes, to be stirred up to bend their 

 mindes, and spend a little more time and travell in these delights of herbes and flowers, 

 than they have formerly done which are not onely harmlesse, but pleasurable in their 

 turn, and profitable in their use. 



Parkinson, 1629 



