SOME IMPORTANT FAMILIES OF ANGIOSPERMS 303 



sugar beet, and spinach are the important cultivated plants 

 of the family. American wormseed is a drug plant of some 

 importance. Several members of the family are well-known 

 weeds; one of the commonest in the United States and 

 Canada is the plant known as " lamb's quarters " or " pig- 

 weed " ; another pernicious weed is the Russian thistle. 



312. The Pink Family. — The families of dicotyledons so 

 far mentioned have, for the most part, small, inconspicuous 

 flowers. Many of the pink family, however, have com- 

 paratively large and showy, and some of them very fragrant, 

 flowers. The flowers are regular, usually with five (some- 

 times only four) sepals, the same number of petals if any 

 (petals are sometimes lacking), and not more than twice as 

 many stamens as sepals. The plants are mostly herbs with 

 opposite, undivided leaves. Of the plants of this family 

 that are grown for their flowers, the best known are the 

 carnations, which are descended from a European species 

 that has been in cultivation for many centuries. The com- 

 mon pinks and sweet williams are members of the same genus 

 as the carnations. A good many common wild plants also 

 belong to the pink family ; among these are various chick- 

 weeds, the campions, the catch-flies, the corn cockle, and the 

 bouncing bet. 



313. The Crowfoot Family. — This is composed of herbs 

 of temperate and cold countries, whose regular flowers have 

 either sepals and petals, or sepals alone that resemble petals, 

 usually numerous stamens, and one or many simple pistils. 

 The family includes many common wild plants ; the butter- 

 cups, hepaticas, meadow-rues, anemones, marsh-marigolds, 

 baneberries, clematis, and columbine are among them. 

 The peony, some of the larkspurs, and species of columbine 

 and clematis are cultivated for their flowers. The drugs 

 known as black hellebore, golden seal, and aconite are sup- 

 plied by members of this family ; larkspur seed is also used 

 medicinally. 



