34 



JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL HORTICULTURAL SOCTLTY. 



The Creeping Buttercup (fig. 3) is one of the most troublesome 

 perennial weeds of the garden, quickly covering the soil if allowed in 

 a network of runners.. It grows rapidly from seed, and in great 

 numbers, while plants turned under quickly push their way through 

 the soil unless deeply buried. The weed may be destroyed if: deeply 

 trenched in, while plants which have been hoed out should be raked 

 off the beds and burnt. Hoeing should be regular and thorough in 

 hot weather, when seedlings may be destroyed in thousands. 



The seedlings (fig. 4) have rather small, broadly oval or rotund-oval, 



Fig. 3. — Creeping Buttercup (Ranunculus repens L.), x i- 



smooth cotyledons {I inch long by f inch broad) with slightly chan- 

 nelled petiole and a well-marked mid-rib. The young root quickly 

 becomes duplicated, and is soon long, strong, and multiple, and as the 

 plant grows runners are put out, these rooting at the nodes as the 

 plant matures. The first leaves which appear after the cotyledons 

 are three-lobed, and thereafter the lobes are indented, toothed or 

 crenate. With further growth of the plant the leaves become divided 

 into three stalked segments which are themselves lobed and toothed. 

 Charlock is an annual cruciferous weed and different from the fore- 



