Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-05-31
CLASSES OF WEEDS.
Some Familiar and Unfamiliar
"Plants" That Are Superfuous.
From the London Times.

rioni I'll" LhiuoH LINES.
Since weeds are simply plants growing
where We do not want them. the same
plant may or may not be a weed accord
ing to the place in which it appears. The
Shirley poppy that springs in we'll culti-
waited asparagus bed is as much weed is
! the cabbage in the rose garden. Some
plants with double gift are equally well
fitted to take their place in either the
vegetable or the flower garden, hut if
they have once made their regulations by
| serving tables, few English gardeners will
tolerate their Introduction, with their Gu
linary associations thick upon them, on
the honorable side of the hedge.
Abroad, indeed, not all gardeners are SO
squeamisn; and there We often see the
deep copper leaves of the beetroot taking
the place In the flower garden to which
their luster entities them, and the arti-
choke lifting the regal dignity of its
glaucous foliage among beds of dahliaS
and roses But in England these distinc-
lions are more precise, and even crabapple
or cherry trees are seldom tolerated in re-
spectacle flower gardens unless they are
warranted TO produce fruit too abortive or
too sour for human use. Such distinctions
are undeniably intrenched behind d sound
principle; for the prime purpose of flow
err garden is, after all. to minister to
pleasure. not utility, and to nurture plants
which the English climate does not scat
ter broadcast in our copses and hedge
rows
In their reaction from excessive formal
ism, the extreme enthusiasts for wild
gardening often tend to forget the differ
ence between garden and wood But 1t
is a mistake to regard the distinctions
which are proper in the flower garden as
primary laws of nature, or to forget that
our classification of certain plants as
diamonds tta ca
which We have in view. The worst of our
weeds merely plants which happen to
profit most by the same conditions Of
growth and methods of dispersion and
propagation which suit our cultivated
crops.
But some of the worst weeds, both of
cornfields and pastures, are weeds in the
fullest sense of condemnation which the
word implies. They are not merely mis-
chievous to culture, but rank and dis
pleasing to the eye. Before the first corn
field was sown. doubtless nature had a
place for the plant alternatively known,
In this other lands, as pooSefoot, pig
weed or fat hen: but it was certainly no
plea. SAINT nook This plant is d near ally
of the meaner sorts of dock, which are
plants as nearly without merit or attrac-
consort very closely with the black bind
weed or buckwheat which stiangles
many goodly fruits and blossoms for the
benefit of as worthless a tansIe of vege-
as even tlle cOTHeT Oh a DiiCklolQ
or a suburban rubbish tip can show.
The fragrant Offensiveness of this group
of plants seems to shock even the moral
sense OF the sparrow. During the rare
intervals when conscience awakens the
sparrow may be seen furtively turning to
good works and eating the bitter herb of
repentance in the shape of the reeds of
knotgrass and fat hen.
Most weeds affect the crop among which
they grow by competing with it for space
and robbing 1t of sunlight and air and of
the food and moisture in the soil. But the
curious class of parasites. of which sew
eral species work considerable mischief to
English agriculture, makes more direct
attack upon the plant by draining it of it's
own vital juices. The most familiar ex-
ample of a parasite is the mistletoe. This
ranks as q pest in many old orchards
though it has an ind apendent market
value which makes it worth The while Of
the provident French farmer to export it
in large quantities to this county at
Christmsn time. Less known to the world
at large. though of greater Importance to
the farmer, the various species Of
broom-r rape and dodder.