230 PRACTICAL LESSONS IN SCIENCE. 



wheat is perhaps the most important member of the family, as 

 its seeds furnish excellent material for food, and its honey pro- 

 ducing flowers make it valuable to those who are raising bees. 

 The rhubarb used in medicine and the well-known pie-plant 

 are useful members of this family. Besides these there are 

 knot-grass, smartweeds, sorrels, water pepper, and several 

 kinds of Dock, belonging to this family, which are troublesome 

 weeds. 



The Pink Family includes some beautiful and interesting 

 plants, but none that are of any great economic value. It is 

 made up of herbs with opposite entire leaves, and regular flow- 

 ers. The ovary is usually one-celled , with from two to five styles; 

 it ripens into a many-seeded pod which opens at the top and 

 contains a free central placenta. Stamens not more than ten, 

 usually standing on the calyx. The petals with slender stalks or 

 claws are also on the calyx. The calyx is composed of five sepals 

 which are united below into a cup or tube on which the stamens 

 and petals are inserted. Many varieties of pinks are cultivated 

 for ornament and are much prized for their beautiful colors and 

 sweet odor. The corn-cockle so injurious in the wheat fields is a 

 member of the pink family, and so are the different varieties of the 

 catchfly, which forms a sticky exudation on its stems and calyx 

 by which small insects are caught. The chickweeds, which belong 

 with the pinks, are mostly adapted to impoverished soils, sandy 

 and gravely wastes, etc. They are pioneers everywhere in 

 nature's attempts to renew worn out soils and to clothe barren 

 places with verdure. 



The Crowfoot Family is made up mostly of herbs, growing 

 more abundantly in the cooler climates and in moist localities. 

 They have numerous stamens, usually more than one pistil, and 

 distinct carpels. Sepals usually five, deciduous, often petal 

 like; petals five, often wanting; plants usually with a watery 

 acrid juice; leaves sometimes simple and entire, but often much 

 divided ; flowers sometimes regular, but often irregular. Many 

 familiar plants belong to this family, as the clematis, hepatica, 

 anemone, buttercup, the cowslip, columbine, larkspur, aconite, 



