IN THE CORN-FIELD (_continued_)
Besides the poppies there is Charlock in the field; not much, Mr.
Hammond will be glad to know, for he has been trying for many years to
get rid of this plant altogether. Pretty as the yellow blossoms of the
Charlock are, it is one of the most troublesome weeds which the farmer
has to fight. It is only an annual certainly, and each seed-pod holds no
more than six or seven seeds. The seeds, however, are oily, and this
oiliness preserves them. If they are ploughed deep into the ground, they
may live there for several years, and will produce a plant when turned
up again by the plough or the scuffle.
Mr. Hammond tells me that some years ago this field was full of
Charlock, and in the early summer there would be more Charlock than
wheat to be seen. This is how he got rid of it. Every year he ploughed
the field and got it ready for the crop as early as possible. Then the
Charlock sprang up before the crop of corn or turnips was sown; thus it
could be rooted out. Still, as we see to-day, there is a little left,
though it is growing less each year.
Charlock is wild mustard. There is more seed than blossom here to-day,
for the flowering time for Charlock is in June. If we chew some seed
from a pod, we shall find it hot and biting to the tongue. In some parts
of England many farmers grow mustard as one of their crops.
Near Willow Farm some farmers grow mustard as a catch-crop. They sow it
in autumn, as soon as another crop has been taken off the field. In the
spring it is eaten by sheep, or else it is ploughed in. A catch-crop
ploughed in like this enriches the land. Moreover a number of weeds are
buried with the catch-crop before they have time to blossom and to shed
their seed.
The yellow blossom of the Charlock is pretty, and the Poppy is the
finest scarlet wild flower we have. There is a third flower among the
wheat to-day, the beautiful blue Corn Flower or Corn Bluebottle. It is
no more welcome to the farmer than the Poppy and the Charlock are. It is
a perennial, and therefore difficult to get rid of. Moreover when we
pull up a stem we find it quite hard work, it is so tough. These tough
stems blunt the sickles of the reapers and the knives of the reaping
machine.
[Illustration left: CREEPING FIELD THISTLE.]
[Illustration right: FIELD SCABIOUS.]
[Illustration left: EVERGREEN ALKANET.]
[Illustration center: CORNFLOWER.]
[Illustration right: SMALLER BINDWEED.]
[Illustration: CHARLOCK.]
To us it is only a very beautiful flower. The florets in the centre of
each blossom are dark purple, but the outer ones are of a brighter blue.
The leaves are long and narrow; those near the bottom of the stem are
rather broader than those higher up. The stems themselves are not round,
but angular. We can feel corners or angles as we hold one in our hand.
They are also covered with a kind of down.
There is another flower which we shall see better if we come to the
stubble field after the wheat is cut; but some of it is near the gate
to-day. This is the Smaller Bindweed. We see that it is a relation of
the Large Bindweed in the garden hedge. It has leaves and flowers of the
same shape, but the flowers are smaller, and are pink and white. Those
of the Large Bindweed are rarely anything but pure white.
This is another troublesome weed here. It does not climb, as the Large
Bindweed does, but creeps along the ground, twining round everything it
meets. In the potato field it is often even more troublesome than here.
Corn is _cut_, but potatoes are _dug_ out of the ground. The Small
Bindweed forms such a thick carpet over the field, and twines round the
potato stems so closely, that it is often very difficult to dig up the
potatoes.
Here is another little flower which I am glad to show you now, the
Scarlet Pimpernel. This and the Poppy are the only _scarlet_ wild
flowers we have. There are many _pink_, and also many _purple_ flowers,
but only these two are really _scarlet_.
The Pimpernel differs from the Poppy in almost everything except its
colour. The Poppy has a tall stout stem and its blossoms are very
large. The Pimpernel trails on the ground and has tiny flowers. The
blossoms of the Poppy have four petals, those of the Pimpernel have
five. These are a beautiful scarlet, but not _quite_ so bright a scarlet
as those of the Poppy.
The leaves grow in pairs, and the small bare stalks which carry a flower
at their ends spring from the stem beside the leaves. The leaves are
sessile on the stem. Turning a leaf over we find that on its under side
are black or dark purple spots.
[Illustration: PIMPERNEL.]
The blossoms of the Pimpernel close up when rain is near, and it is
often called the Poor Man's Weatherglass. Sometimes, but very rarely, a
plant is found which has pink, or even pure white blossoms. There is
also a blue Pimpernel. Another Pimpernel is the Bog Pimpernel; but we
shall not find it in this dry field of corn, as you may guess by the
name.
One more flower we will look at, and then it will be time to leave our
corn-field and to search elsewhere. Growing on the hedgebank at the side
of the field is a pretty lilac-blue flower on a long bare stalk. It is
the Field Scabious.
The blossoms are in shape like a round ball very much flattened--like a
round pincushion. There are no large petals here, as with the Poppy, but
a great number of small florets. Those on the outer edge of the blossom
are larger than those inside. Each floret is a tiny tube or pipe.
The leaves are on separate stalks from those which bear the flowers, and
they grow in pairs. They are divided into several pairs of lobes, with a
single lobe at the end of each leaf. Some leaves grow from that part of
the stem which is underground, and these are larger than the others, and
are sometimes of a different shape. Both the leaves and the stem are
hairy.