754 Identification and Eradication of Weeds, [dec, 



plant, and the seedling can hardly be mistaken after the 

 stage shown in Fig. 3, b is passed. 



Mature Plant. — Cleavers grows rapidly from the seed, 

 which germinates in late autumn, early winter, or early 

 spring, the flowering stage being reached by or before June 

 and continuing through the summer. The mature plant 

 (Fig. 3, e) is long and straggling, and much branched. The 

 four-angled stems are provided with inverted hooks to enable 

 the plant to climb ; the leaves and stipules are narrow and 

 lanceolate, J to 2 ins. long, with a spine at the apex, and in 

 whorls of six to eight; the small flowers (Fig. 3, e') are white, 

 and occur in small clusters springing from the leaf axils. 

 The fruits are described above. 



Prevention and Remedy. — Pure seeds must be sown, par- 

 ticularly red clover, Italian rye-grass, and seed corn. The 

 fruits may occur plentifully in farmyard manure, and care 

 should be taken to destroy the germinating power of all weed 

 seeds before giving them to stock. Percival states * that "In 

 some of the worst cases we have seen the weed was brought 

 to the farm by dung containing the seeds." Surface cultiva- 

 tion during early spring and summer, and again in late 

 autumn, encourages the seeds to germinate, when the seed- 

 lings may be destroyed by the harrows or in autumn by 

 ploughing under. The hoe should be kept busy throughout 

 the summer, and in bad cases removal by hand may be useful, 

 though this method is of necessity difficult. Holdich says, 

 " How to destroy this weed is how to destroy all annuals, 

 namely, by encouraging the seeds to vegetate and killing 

 them with the plough." 



Lady's Mantle. 



Field Lady's Mantle (Alchemilla arvensis, Lamk.), also 

 known as Parsley Piert or Parsley Break-stone, is a little 

 annual which may sometimes prove too plentiful in corn- 

 fields, particularly perhaps on dry, loamy, and calcareous 

 soils. Pitt f terms it "a diminutive weed of small account, 

 but sometimes too much abounding." 



* Agricultural Botany, J. Percival, 1910, p. 594. 



t "On the Subject of Weeding ; or the Improvements to be effected in 

 Agriculture by the Extirpation of Weeds," William Pitt : Communications to the 

 Board of Agriculture, Vol. v., i8c6. 



