50 



WEEDS AND USEFUL PLANTS. 



Cultivated Camelina. AVild Flax. Gold of Pleasure. 



Ft. Cameline cultivee. Germ. Der Leindotter. Span. Miagro. 



Root annual, fusiform, rather slender. Stem 18 inches to 2 or three feet high, simple, 

 paniculately branching at summit, roughish-pubescent below, smoothish above. Leaves 

 1 - 3 or 4 inches long ; the lower ones longest and often somewhat spatulate or oblauce- 

 olate ; those above gradually smaller and smoother, sagittate with acute subamplexicaul 

 lobes at base ; pubescence of the lower leaves and stem often branched or bifurcate. 

 Racemes corymbose-paniculate, elongating ; pedicels half an inch to an inch long, without 

 bracts. Petals pale yellow, rather small, cuueate or obovate-oblong, obtuse. Silicles 

 about one-fourth of an inch long, with a keel-hke margin on each side ; style about half as 

 long as the silicle, persistent, finally splitting with the dehiscent valves. Seeds reddish 

 yellow. 



Cultivated fields: among wheat, flax, &c.: introduced. Native of Europe. Fl. May- 

 June. Fr. July 



Obs. This was introduced with Flax, and remains as a weed where 

 the culture of that plant has been abandoned. It was formerly a popu- 

 lar notion that the plant was a kind of transmuted or degenerate Flax, 

 and is spoken of by the older writers as Pseudo Lmum, (False Flax). 

 Such errors as this and the one that Wheat degenerates into Chess 

 would no longer hold a place among agriculturists, did they but prop- 

 erly inform themselves concerning the objects among which their 

 lives are passed. 



8. OAPSEL'LA, Vent. Shepherd's Purse. 



[Diminutive of the Latin, Capsula, a capsule ; in allusion to the fruit.] 



Pod (pouch) inversely triangular-heart-shaped ; valves boat-shaped, 

 coriaceous, not winged ; cells many-seeded. Flowers small, in elongat- 

 ing racemes. 



1. C. Bursa-pdstoris, Moench. Radical leaves mostly pinnatifid ; 

 &.tem-leaves lanceolate, arrow-shaped, sessile. 



Shepherd's Purse Capsella. Shepherd's Purse. [Pastor. 

 Fr. Bourse de Pasteur. Germ. Die Hirten-tasche. Span. Bolsa de 



Root&mmaX. (Sfem 3 or 4 - 18 inches high, more or less hirsute, and often branched. 

 Radical leaves 2 or 3-6 or 8 inches long. Racemes at first corymbose, finally elongated. 

 Petals white. 



Fields and road-sides: introduced. Native of Europe. Fl. April -September. Fr. 

 June -October. 



Obs. This worthless little intruder is found in almost every field ; and 

 is sometimes so abundant as to be rather a nuisance. Such small 

 weeds, however, can generally be suppressed by careful culture, and in- 

 ducing a vigorous growth of more useful plants. 



9. LEPID'IUM, R. Br. Peppergrass. 

 Pod (pouch) roundish, flattened contrary to the narrow partition, usually 

 notched at the apex ; the valves boat-shaped and keeled. Seeds 1 in 

 each cell. Flowsrs small, white. Stamens often only 2. 



