WEEDS AND WEED SEEDLINGS. 



37 



gardens, for seeds are freely produced ; the plant flowers at almost any 

 time of year — certainly from March to December — and the rosette of 

 leaves at the base of the stem covers a considerable space. It must be 

 combated by regular hoeing. It is an especial host of the white rust, 

 Cystopus candidus. Shepherd's Purse attains perhaps 18 inches in 

 height. 



The cotyledons (fig. 8) are smooth, small, oval, or nearly spathulate, 

 and shortly stalked. The first few true leaves are coarsely hairy on 



Fig. 7. — Shepherd's Purse (Capsella Bursa-Pastoris DC), X i- 



both surfaces and somewhat resemble the cotyledons in appearance ; 

 the young seedling of a few days old is quite tufty, the rosette form 

 being assumed as the plant grows and the flowering-stem is sent up. 

 The leaves at the base are long and more or less pinnatifid, while the 

 few on the stem are small, entire and auricled. As the young plant 

 grows the root becomes long, tapering and branched. 



Spurrey (fig. 9) is certainly one of the most troublesome annual 



