Corn or Purple Cockle. Agrostemma Gitkago L. 



A member of tlie Piuk family. An annual about three feet bigh, 

 braucbes few. Entire plant covered with silky bairs. Leaves narrow, 

 two to four incbes long. Flowers sbowy, rose-purple, an inch or more 

 wide. Petals five. Calyx ridged, swollen at maturity. Seeds large, 

 blaek, roughly triangular, covered with rows of coarse teeth. A weed in 

 wheat fields. The seed is injurious to flour. Throughout the State. 

 June to September. control 



Sow only clean seed wheat, oats and rye. Hand-pull all cockle plants 

 found growing in the grain fields. Practice clean cultivation on infested 

 fields, and see that no cockle plants mature seed. This plant is listed 

 among the poisonous plants of America, and any large amount of the seed 

 in wheat renders the flour unsafe for human food; and wheat tailings 

 or screenings containing an appreciable amount of cockle are said to be 

 unsafe feed for poultry. 



No. I. f'oilN oil I'ultl'LE C'OCKLK (JU .\0H08ri.MMA CllHAOO L. 



