DESCRIPTIONS OF SOME COMMON WEEDS 217 



and the Mississippi Valley to Arizona. The rough puc- 

 coon (L. hirtum) is hispid with bristly hairs ; leaves of the 

 stem lanceolate or linear, of the flowering branches ovate- 

 oblong, bristly ciliate ; flowers peduncled, crowded, showy 

 yellow. In sandy soils, especially pine barrens from New 

 York to Minnesota and Nebraska. 



Blueweed (Echium vulgar e, L.). An erect, rough, 

 bristly biennial, eighteen inches to two feet high, with an 

 erect, mostly simple stem ; leaves of the stem linear- 

 lanceolate, sessile; flowers in cymose clusters; corolla 

 reddish purple, changing to blue ; tube funnel-form, bor- 

 der unequal, spreading, five-lobed ; stamens five, inserted 

 on the tube; style threadlike; nutlets roughened or 

 wrinkled. A common weed along roadsides, fields, and 

 meadows from New England to Indiana. 



Verbena Family (Verbenaceae). Herbs, shrubs or 

 trees with opposite or alternate leaves; perfect, regular 

 or somewhat irregular flowers borne in spikes, racemes 

 or panicles; calyx generally persistent, inferior, four to 

 five-lobed or cleft ; corolla four to five-cleft, tube cylindri- 

 cal; stamens four, didynamous, or two; ovary superior, 

 two to four-celled or more; fruit dry or drupaceous, 

 splitting into one to four nutlets. A large order, found 

 chiefly in tropical regions, and contains about 1,200 species. 



Hoary Vervain (Verbena stricta, Vent.). A downy, 

 simple or branched perennial from one to three feet high ; 

 leaves sessile, obovate or oblong, serrate, covered with 

 soft hairs; flowers in long hairy spikes, large, purple; 

 calyx tubular, salver-form ; fruit splitting into four seed- 

 like nutlets. Common in sandy soil, knolls and especially 

 upland pastures in the West. The blue vervain (V. 

 hastata), a perennial from four to six feet high with 

 lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, taper-pointed leaves; 

 blue flowers in linear spikes, is common in low grounds. 

 The narrow-leaved verbena (V. angustifolia) is a simple 

 or somewhat branched perennial ; leaves narrowly lanceo- 



