75o Identification and Eradication of Weeds, [dec, 



which is communicated to water in which the heartsease is 

 distilled." * 



Prevention and Remedy. — The Corn Pansy is an annual 

 which produces an abundance of seed, and hence must be 

 combated by surface cultivation, and the free use of the hoe 

 among roots after corn. Care should be taken that pure 

 samples of clover and grass seeds are sown. 



Field Madder. 



Field Madder (Sherardia arvensis, L.) is a small prostrate 

 annual which is often plentiful on cultivated land, especially 

 on light sandy loams and calcareous soils. Brenchley found 

 that in the district between Harpenden and Bedford the weed 

 is frequent on clays and heavy soils, as well as on sandy 

 soils and light loams, while it is "symptomatic " of the chalk. 

 Anne Pratt remarks that "The plant abounds in the ridges 

 of cornfields, and on dry banks, especially where the soil is 

 of gravel." It is, perhaps, most generally found in "seeds," 

 and the fruits are a common impurity in samples of red 

 clover, Italian ryegrass, and "seeds" mixtures. The generic 

 name is after the botanist Sherard. 



Fruits. — The seed of Field Madder is enclosed in a fruit 

 (Fig. 2, a), which is small and rough, and crowned by three 

 erect, persistent, spiny calyx teeth. The fruits are two-lobed, 

 ashy-grey to grey-brown in colour, owing to numerous fine 

 white hairs closely pressed to the fruit. Each lobe is some- 

 what egg-shaped, rather flattened on one side, and furrowed 

 lengthwise on that side. The total length is about T V to J in. 

 (2 to 3 mm.), and the breadth ^to^in. (1*2 to 1*7 mm.) 

 broad. The fruits are a very common impurity in the seeds 

 of clovers and grasses throughout Europe. 



Seedlings. — The first stage seedling (Fig. 2, b) shows a 

 well-developed fibrous root-system, the roots being yellowish 

 in colour. The hypocotyl is light green and smooth. The 

 cotyledons (Fig. 2, b') are broadly ovate to roundish, fleshy, 

 smooth, dark green, with very short broad petiole, and clearly 

 three-nerved from the base; they are J to | in. (6 to 9 mm.) 

 in total length, and J to T 3 o in. (4 to 7*5 mm.) broad, enlarging 

 as the seedling grows. 



* Flowering Plants, Anne Pratt, vol. i., p. 1 77- 



