

PLANTS GROWING IN WASTE SOIL. 311 
Stamens: four,-in pairs of unequal length. Pést#/: one. Leaves: those of the 
base, tufted; those of the stem, alternate; linear; sessile; parallel-veined. 
Stem: erect ; leafy ; smooth. 
Along the sandy roadsides the blue linaria seems to be per- 
fectly at home and happy. It comes early in the summer and re- 
mains until late in the autumn; enjoying the sunshine, the 
singing of the birds and the fun-loving urchins that know it so 
well. It can hardly be said to resemble very closely its near 
relative, the sprightly butter-and-eggs. 
L. repens, pale-blue toad-flax, is a small species that is found 
about the Atlantic seaports. It has come to us from Europe. 
POKEWEED. PIGEON-BERRY. 
Phytolacca decdndra. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Pokeweed. White and pink. Scentless. General. July-September. 
Flowers : on pedicels; growing ina long raceme. Calyx : of five rounded, pet- 
al-like sepals, pinkish on the outside and whitish within. Stamens: ten. Péstil: 
one; styles, ten. The ovary like a greeneye. Fruit: a bunch of many 
purple, juicy berries. Leaves: large; alternate; on long petioles; lanceolate ; 
conspicuously veined ; smooth and thin. Stem: five toten feet high; stocky ; 
smooth. Moots: poisonous. 
In the distribution of talents it 1s not given to every one to 
be an admirer of pokeweed. Even the long, cylindrical racemes 
of purple berries that, clustered among the soft green leaves, 
line many a roadside in the late autumn, fail to call forth the 
least enthusiasm from these slighted people. To them poke- 
weed is pokeweed and that isan end of the matter. Mr. Bur- 
roughs is fond of pokeweed and says: ‘What a lusty, royal 
plantitis! Itnever invades cultivated fields but hovers about 
the borders and looks over the fencés like a painted Indian 
sachem.” 
Although the bloom is usually ascribed to July and the fruit 
to September, there are many spots on Long Island and in New 
Jersey where the plant lingers in blossom until early September. 
Country people boil the young shoots as greens, and from their 
accounts of them they quite rival asparagus in delicacy of 
flavour. The berries also are greatly enjoyed by birds. 

