THE PINK FAMILY 63 



further seeding. Good drainage of infested areas is also helpful. 

 Thick seeding with clovers and grasses is effective in smothering 



it out. 



ALLIED SPECIES: Grass-leaved or Lesser Stitchwort (Stel- 

 laria graminea L.) is a weed found occasionally in the Maritime 

 Provinces. It is a wide-branching plant, 1 to 2 feet high, with 

 many grassy leaves in pairs along the slender stems and bearing 

 many starry white flowers nearly 1/2 inch across. 



The seed is often found in clover and grass seed; it is the 

 same size as Common Chickweed seed but more nearly circular 

 in outline. The surface markings are quite different; instead 

 of bearing tubercles, the surface is thickly covered with short 

 curved ridges in more or less regular rows. 



The Mouse-ear Chickweeds {Cerastium), two or three of 

 which occur in Canada as weeds, are somewhat similar to 

 Common Chickweed but easily distinguished from it. These 

 plants have much the same habit of growth as Common 

 Chickweed but are 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. 



Field Mouse-ear Chickweed (Cerastium arrense L.) in some 

 places is a troublesome and persistent weed. A native form occurs 

 abundantly throughout the western prairies but gives little 

 trouble. In some parts of Ontario, Quebec and the Maritime 

 Provinces there is a kind with smoother leaves, and copious 

 rootstocks which enable the plant to become a persistent enemy. 

 Pastures or meadows invaded by it must be broken up and cleaned 

 by a short rotation of crops. The flowers of Field Chick- 

 weed are large and conspicuous, more than 1/2 inch across, and 

 borne on erect flowering stems, 3 to 6 inches high. In the West 

 the plant is sometimes grown for its beauty. 



The seed is larger than that of the other chickweeds here 

 described, almost round and covered with coarse tubercles. 



Common Mouse-ear Chickweed (Cerastium vulgatum L.) is a 

 perennial plant which occurs in cultivated land, pastures and 



