Knot Grass
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a prostrate plant, with internodes, narrow leaves, silvery stipules, and white, pink, crimson, or green inconspicuous flowers, clustered in the axils of various leaves. It is common in fields and waste places. KNOTS and SPLICES include all the various methods of tying, fastening, and joining ropes or cords. From 150 to 200 different kinds of knots may be enumerated, mostly used on shipboard, though almost all occupations using ropes or cordage have special kinds of knots adapted to their different requirements. "Splicing" is the process employed to join two ropes when it is not advisable to use a knot. The three chief varieties of the splice are the short splice, the long splice, and the eye splice. The short splice is made by unlaying the ends of two ropes for a short distance and fitting them closely together; then, by the help of a marlinspike, the ends are laced over and under the strands of the opposite rope. When each strand has been passed through once, half of it is cut away and the remainder passed through again; half of the remainder being also cut away, it all the strands are so treated, they are is passed a third time, and, when hauled taut and cut close. This reducing the thickness of the strands tapers off the splice. The long splice is employed when the rope is used to run through a block, as it does not thicken it. The ends of the two ropes are unlaid for a much longer distance than for the short splice, and similarly placed together. Then one strand is taken and further unwound for a considerable distance, and its vacant place filled up with the corresponding strand of the other rope, and the ends fastened as in the short splice. Other two of the strands are similarly spliced in the opposite direction, and the remaining two fastened at the original joining place. The eye splice is, as the term implies, used to form an eye, or round a dead eye. To prevent a rope fraying at the ends ng at the a variety of methods are employed, the employed, simplest being to serve or whip the end whip the with small cord. 3 2 保 萬事 10 8 KNOTS 5. Bowline Knot. 1. Overhand Knot. 6. Slip Knot. 2. Figure Eight Knot. 7. Sheepshank Knot. Bhe 3. Reef Knot. 8. Clove Hitch Knot. 8. Clo 4. Weavers' Knot.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's description from 1921 — a prostrate plant of fields and waste places, with silvery stipules and tiny flowers tucked in the leaf axils — still describes Polygonum aviculare, prostrate knotweed, accurately enough to identify it today. What has moved is the naming: molecular work from the 1990s onward broke up the old catch-all genus Polygonum, shifting many of knot grass's former relatives into Persicaria and the invasive Japanese knotweed into Reynoutria (or Fallopia), while aviculare itself is now treated as an aggregate of closely similar forms. The plant's modern reputation is as a tough weed of compacted ground, turf and pavement cracks, with populations in several countries showing resistance to common herbicides. Note that this page also carries Collier's article on knots and splices, run together with the botanical entry; there the biggest later landmark is Clifford Ashley's 1944 book, which catalogued thousands of knots against the 150 to 200 estimated here, and the rise of synthetic ropes needing their own splicing methods.
Written for this edition, 2026.