WEEDS 253 



celled berry, with a single seed in each cell, surrounded with 

 purplish juice. A tall weed, 5 to 10 feet high, with stout, up- 

 right stems and flowers in racemes, rank -stemmed, with a 

 broad, poisonous root. The berries cannot be poisonous, for 

 birds eat them. 



This is one of the plants that springs up in burnt-over districts. 

 In one season such blackened ground bears myriads of gargets, 

 where none was seen before. They also like to creep up near 

 dwellings. I have in mind one which grows back of a country 

 church, close to its wall, always in the shade, reaching the pulpit 

 window with its tall stem. 



" Its cylindrical racemes of berries of various hues, from green 

 to dark purple, 6 or 7 inches long, are gracefully drooping on all 

 sides, offering repasts to the birds, and even the sepals from 

 which the birds have picked the berries are a brilliant lake-red, 

 with crimson, flame -like reflections, equal to anything of the 

 kind — all on fire with ripeness." — Thoreau. 



63. Curled Dock 



Rumex crfspus. — Family, Buckwheat. Color, green. Leaves, 

 long, narrow, with wavy, curled edges, acute at apex, the lower 

 ones slightly heart-shaped at base. Time, spring and summer. 



Calyx, of 6 sepals, the inner 3 (called valves) colored, bear- 

 ing greenish grains, which they close around. The outer 3 

 are leaf-like, united at base, spreading in fruit. Stamens, 6. 

 Styles, 3. Instead of ordinary stipules, the leaves at the very 

 bases of their petioles sheathe the stem. Flowers in whorls, 

 crowded in long panicles. 

 A common weed in farm lands, 3 or 4 feet high. 



64. Bitter Dock 



R. obtusifblius has flowers whorled in looser, more distant 

 panicles. Lower leaves ovate, heart-shaped, obtuse, the upper 

 narrower, acute. Calyx wings spiny-toothed; achenes smooth, 

 red. 



