PLATE 35. 



BLUEWEED, Echium vulgare, L. 



Other English names : Yiper's Bugloss, Blue-thistle, Blue 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 reddish buds and bright blue flowers, 

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

 family. Hoot 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 Flowering: July to September; 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 found 

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



Remedy: This bienntl 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, Liihospermum arvense, 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 Eed-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- 

 jections, 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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