WEEDS OF ESSEX COUNTY. 



BY JOHN H. SEARS. 



A WEED is any plant which occupies cultivated ground 

 to the injury of the particular crop intended to be grown. 

 Thus, even the most useful plants may become weeds if 

 they appear out of their proper place. The term is some- 

 times applied to any insignificant looking or unprofitable 

 plants which grow profusely in a state of nature, as the 

 fireweed, pigweed, mayweed, whiteweed, etc. There 

 are weeds by the roadside, in gravel, brick and plank- 

 walks, on railroad beds, in brooks, ponds and water 

 courses. 



By a system of natural selection some plants seem to 

 thrive best in certain localities, as for instance the purse- 

 lane. Portulaca oleracea is always found growing in 

 cultivated grounds, while the common plantain (Plantago 

 major) grows quite as abundantly in a hard, uncultivated 

 situation. And again, the sorrel (Rumex acetosella) may 

 be said to grow in either situation equally as well. 



A large proportion of the plants called weeds are in- 

 troduced from Europe, and as they are brought here with 

 different kinds of crop seeds they become more or less 

 adapted to the situation in which the seed is sown. And 

 when the weed has perfected its seed, it will continue to 

 thrive if the situation is a suitable one. Such plants as 

 have become adapted to their surroundings usually grow 

 in a like kind of soil and place, as there they thrive best, 

 though a great many kinds of weeds have become so 



ESSEX INST. BULLETIN, VOL. XV. 8 (93) 



