"The worst weed in corn may be-corn." Nature is the great farmer. Continually she sows and reaps, making all the forces of the universe her tools and helpers; the sun's rays, wind, rain and snow, insects and birds, animals small and great, even to the humble burrowing worms of the earth-all work mightily for her, and a harvest of some kind is absolutely sure. But if man interferes and insists that the crops shall be only such as may benefit and enrich himself, she seems to yield a willing obedience, and under his control does immensely better work than when unguided. But Dame Nature is an "eye-servant." Let the master relax his vigilance for ever so short a time, and among the crops of his desire will come stealing in the hardy, aggressive, and to him, useless plants that seem to be her favorites. Chickweed. Photo by Cyrus Crosby. A weed is a plant growing where we wish something else to grow, and a plant may, therefore, be a weed in some locations and not in others. The mullein is grown in greenhouses in England as the American velvetplant. Our grandmothers considered "butter-and-eggs," a pretty posy, and planted it in their gardens, wherefrom it escaped, and is now a bad weed wherever it grows. A weed may crowd out our cultivated plants, by stealing the moisture and nourishment in the soil which they should have; or it may shade them out by putting out broad leaves and shutting off their sunlight. When harvested with a crop, weeds may be unpalatable to the stock which feed upon it; or in some cases, as in the wild parsnip, the plant may be poisonous. Each weed has its own way of winning in the struggle with our crops, and it behooves us to find that way as soon as possible in order to circumvent it. This we can only do by a careful study of the peculiarities of the species. To do this we must know the plant's life history; whether it is an annual, surviving the winter only in its seeds; or a biennial, storing in fleshy root or in broad, green leafy rosette the food drawn from the soil and air during the first season, to perfect its fruitage in the second year; or a perennial, surviving and springing up to spread its kind and pester the farmer year after year, unless he can destroy it "root and branch." Purslane is an example of the first class, burdock or mullein of the second, and the field sorrel or Canada thistle of the third. According to their nature the farmer must use different means of extermination; he must strive to hinder the annuals and biennials from forming any seed whatever; and where perennials have made themselves a pest, he must put in a "hoed crop," requiring such constant and thorough tillage that the weed roots will be deprived of all starchy food manufactured by green leaves and be starved out. Especially every one who plants a garden should know how the weeds look when young, for seedlings of all kinds are delicate and easy to kill before their roots are well established. LESSON CXLIX OUTLINE FOR THE STUDY OF A WEED 1. Why do we call a plant a weed? Is a weed a weed wherever it grows? How about "butter and eggs" when it grew in Grandmother's garden? Why do we call that a weed now? What did Grandmother call it? 2. In how many ways may a weed injure our cultivated crops? 3. Why must we study the habits of a weed before we know how to fight it? We should ask of every weed in our garden or on our land the following questions, and let it answer them through our observations in order to know why the weed grows where it chooses, despite our efforts. 4. How did this weed plant itself where I find it growing? By what agency was its seed brought and dropped? 5. What kind of root has it? If it has a tap-root like the mullein, what advantage does it derive from it? If it has a spreading shallowgrowing root like the purslane what advantage does it gain? If it has a creeping rootstock with underground buds like the Canada thistle, how is it thereby helped? 6. Is the stem woody or fleshy? Is it erect or reclining or climbing? Does it gain any advantage through the character of its stem? 7. Note carefully the leaves. Are they eaten by grazing animals? If not, why? Are they covered with prickles like the teazel or fuzz like the mullein, or are they bitter and acrid like the wild carrot? 8. Study the blossoms. How early does the weed bloom? How long does it remain in bloom? Do insects carry pollen for the flowers? If so, what insects? What do the insects get in return? How are the flower buds and the ripening seeds protected? 9. Does it ripen many seeds? Are these ripened at the same time or are they ripened during a long period? Of what advantage is this? How are the seeds scattered, carried and planted? Compute how many seeds one plant of this weed matures in one year. "That which ye sow ye reap. See yonder fields! The sesamum was sesamum, Was corn. the corn The Silence and the Darkness know!" -EDWIN ARNOLD. The crocus, like the snowdrop, cannot wait for the snow to be off the ground before it pushes up its gay blossoms, and it has thus earned the gratitude of those who are winter weary. The old and young corms of the crocus. The crocus has a corm instead of a bulb like the snowdrop or daffodil. A corm is a solid, thickened, underground stem, and is not in layers, like the onion. The roots come off the lower side of the corm. The corm of the crocus is well wrapped in several, usually five, white coats with papery tips. When the plant begins to grow the leaves push up through the coats. The leaves are grasslike and may be in number from two to eight, depending on the variety. Each leaf has its edge folded, and the white midrib has a plait on either side, giving it the appearance of being box-plaited on the under side. The bases of the leaves enclosed in the corm coats are yellow, since they have had no sunlight to start their starch factories and the green within their cells. At the center of the leaves appear the blossom buds, each enclosed in a sheath. The petals and sepals are similar in color, but the three sepals are on the outside, and their texture, especially on the outer side, is coarser than that of the three protected petals. But sepals and petals unite into a long tube at the base. At the very base of this corolla tube, away down out of sight, even below the surface of the ground, is the seed-box, or ovary. From the tip of the ovary the style extends up through the corolla-tube and is tipped with a ruffled three-lobed stigma. The three stamens are set at the throat of the corolla tube. The anthers are very long and open along the sides. The anthers mature first, and shed their pollen in the cup of the blossom where any insect, seeking the nectar in the tube of the corolla, must become dusted with it. However, if the stigma lobes fail to get pollen from other flowers, they later spread apart and curl over until they reach some of the pollen of their own flower. SP SP -Style Leat Crocus blossoms have varied colors: white, yellow, orange, purple, the latter often striped or feather-veined. And, while many seeds like tiny pearls, are developed in the oblong capsule, yet it is chiefly by its corms that the crocus multiplies. On top of the mother corm of this year develop several small corms, each capable of growing a plant. next year. But after two years of this second-story sort of multiplication the young crocuses are pushed above the surface of the ground. Thus, they need to be replanted every two or three years. Crocuses may be planted from the first of October until the ground freezes. They make pretty borders to garden beds and paths. Or they may be planted in lawns without disturbing the grass, by punching a hole with a stick or dibble and dropping in a corm and then pressing back the soil in place above it. The plants will mature before the grass needs to be mowed. The crocus. Roots p. petal; sp, sepal; an, anther; f, fila ment; stg stigma; b, mother corm; bi bi bi young corms. LESSON CL THE CROCUS Leading thought-The crocuses appear so early in the spring, because they have food stored in underground storehouses. They multiply by seeds and by corms. Method-If it is possible to have crocuses in boxes in the schoolroom windows, the flowers may thus best be studied. Otherwise, when crocuses are in bloom bring them into the schoolroom, bulbs and all, and place them where the children may study them at leisure. Observations-1. At what date in the spring have you found crocuses in blossom? Why are they able to blossom so much earlier than other flowers? 2. Take a crocus just pushing up out of its bulb. How many overcoats protect its leaves? What is at the very center of the bulb? Has the flower bud a special overcoat? 3. Describe the leaves. How are they folded in their overcoats? What color are they where they have pushed out above their overcoats! What color are they within the overcoats? Why? 4. Do the flowers or the leaves have stems, or do they arise directly from the bulb? 5. What is the shape of the open crocus flower? Can you tell the difference between sepals and petals in color? Can you tell the difference by their position? Or by their texture above or below? As you look into the flower, which make the points of the triangle, the sepals or the petals? 6. Describe the anthers. How long are they? How many are there? How do they open? What is the color of the pollen? Describe how a boc becomes dusted with pollen? Why does the bee visit the crocus blossom? If she finds nectar there, where is it? 7. Describe the stigma. Open a flower and see how long the style is? How do the sepals and petals unite to protect the style? Where is the seed-box? Is it so far down that it is below ground? How many soods are developed from a single blossom? 8. How many colors do you find in the crocus flowers? Which ere the prettiest in the lawn? Which, in the flower beds? 9. How do the crocus blossoms act in dark and stormy vonihor? When do they open? How does this benefit them? IO. How do the crocus bulbs multiply? Why do they lift honoivos out of the ground and thus need resetting. II. Describe how to raise crocuses best; the kind of soil, the time of planting, and the best situations. Out of the frozen earth below, No flower, but a film, I push to light; The bars of winter, I am the first O Sun, to greet thee out of the night! Deep in the warm sleep underground Life is still, and the peace profound: Yet a beam that pierced, and a thrill that smote I rose, I came, to the open day I have won, unshelter'd, alone, remote. -"THE CROCUS," BY HARRIET E. H. KING. When first the crocus thrusts its point of gold, -"A TOUCH OF Nature," by T. B. ALDRICH. |