What is a Weed? 151 



of lowlier and more delicate growth ; and the 

 lesser weeds of a cornfield on a chalky or sandy 

 soil include many shy and curious species, like the 

 little purple-flowered fumitory, the wild heartsease, 

 in all its many varieties of colour, and the finely 

 cut shepherd's-needle, or Venus's comb. Even the 

 well-known pink convolvulus is a retiring plant 

 as it twines among the shaded stems, in spite of 

 the mischief which it can do in the long run by 

 strangling the crop. 



But some weeds, both of cornfields and pastures, 

 are weeds in the fullest sense of condemnation which 

 the word implies. They are not merely mischievous 

 to culture, but rank and displeasing to the eye. 

 Before the first cornfield was sown, doubtless 

 nature had a place for the plant alternatively 

 known, in this or other lands, as goose-foot, pigweed, 

 or fat-hen ; but it was certainly no pleasant nook. 

 This plant is a near ally of the meaner sorts of 

 dock ; and it often consorts very closely with the 

 black bindweed, or buckwheat, which strangles 

 many goodly fruits and blossoms for the benefit 

 of as worthless a tangle of vegetation as even the 

 corner of a brickfield or a suburban rubbish-tip 

 can show. The flagrant offensiveness of this group 

 of plants seems to shock even the moral sense of 

 the sparrow. During the rare intervals when its 

 conscience awakens, the sparrow may be seen 

 furtively turning to good works and eating the 

 bitter herb of repentance in the shape of the seeds 

 of knot-grass and fat- hen. 



Most weeds affect the crop among which they 



