THE YOUNG 



NATURALIST. 



123 



visitors, and the honey-glands are a 

 distinct bribe for beneficial visits. The 

 proterandrous stamens favour cross- 

 fertilization, whilst the later ripening 

 ones ensure self-impregnation should 

 insect visits be prevented or delayed. 



If we look now at the common 

 chickweed (S. media) of the gardens 

 which everybody recognises, we may 

 observe evidences of degeneration of 

 great interest to the student of 

 nature. In essential particulars the 

 flowers are the same as the stitchwort, 

 but dwarfed and stunted in all its 

 parts ; the petals are small and narrow, 

 rarely equalling the calyx, and some- 

 times wanting altogether ; the stamens 

 are reduced to five, and of these often 

 two are abortive, they still retain the 

 honey glands, and doubtless are visited 

 by small flies. Yet, notwithstanding 

 these apparent disadvantages, the chick- 

 weed displays amazing fecundity, and 

 is an ubiquitous weed ; but it has be- 

 come largely, if not entirely, dependent 

 upon man for its existence, and is 

 rarely found except as a waste product 

 of cultivation. It is curious how it 

 follows the footsteps of man wherever 

 he settles and applies himself to reclaim 

 the soil. Everyone who has attempted 

 to clear a neglected garden of this 

 weed knows how it is almost ineradi- 

 cable : its stems are so brittle it is 

 scarcely possible to extract it by the 

 roots, and it requires only a small por- 

 tion to be left to spring away again 



with renewed vigour ; it also grows so 

 quickly that in favourable weather it 

 will ripen its seeds in six weeks from 

 its appearance above ground. After 

 flowering the long, slender peduncles 

 become curiously deflexed, so as to 

 more securely ripen the seed and sow 

 it in the ground. Common chickweed 

 may be always recognised by the very 

 evident line of hairs which runs up the 

 stem. Always starting from the axil 

 of a leaf, it runs straight up the stem 

 and terminates between the next pair 

 of leaves, then taking a quarter turn 

 round the stem, it proceeds in the same 

 manner, thus in four internodes, i.e., 

 the space of the stem betwixt each pair 

 of leaves, it has made a complete circle 

 round the stem. A nearly-allied plant 

 Arenaria trinervis, agrees very closely 

 in general habit and appearance with 

 common chickweed; but its stem is 

 uniformly hairy all round and the 

 leaves are prominently three -nerved, 

 hence its specific name. Its habitat 

 is also different, for it never grows in 

 gardens or cultivated fields, but by 

 roadsides and hedgerows, where it is 

 not so liable to be disturbed. As every 

 bird-fancier knows the leaves and seeds 

 of chickweed are eagerly eaten by birds: 

 if too freely partaken of they have a 

 laxative, purgative effect both on birds 

 and animals. Sheep are even said to 

 succumb to its effects when penned on 

 turnip-fields where it is luxuriant and 

 abundant. So superabundant is the 



