DESCRIPTIVE MANUAL 



171 



Fig. 95-A. Distribution of "Winter Cress. 



CAPPARIDACEAE, CAPER FAMILY. 



This family contains the caper which is used for pickling, the 

 Rocky Mountain bee plant, etc. 



Stinkweed (Polanisia gmveolens Raf.). 



Description. — A fetid annual with glandular hairs; leaves with 3 

 oblong leaflets ; flowers in leafy racemes ; 6 petals, white, with claws, 

 notched at the apex ; stamens about 11, scarcely exceeding the petals ; 

 not elongated, bearing a gland behind the base of the ovary; pod 

 short, stalked; seeds rough. The P. trachysperma T. & Gr. has larger 

 flowers with long exserted stamens and sessile pods. 



Distribution. — Iowa to Kansas and eastward to New England; 

 common in sandy soil, railroad embankments, Muscatine Island. 



Extermination. — Easily exterminated by cultivation. The land 

 should be cultivated as soon as a fresh growth of the weed develops. 

 Great care must be taken not to plow down any full-sized pods, even 

 though they may be green, as it has been proven that in the dry 

 climate of the west such seeds can ripen beneath the soil. The most 

 important measure to be used in order to clear the land of stink- 

 weed is harrowing the growing crop to kill the seedlings. The har- 

 rowing should commence before the crop emerges from the ground 

 and be repeated when the grain is about three inches high. 



