70 THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



mealy beneath. Flowers in simple or compound terminal and axillary 

 spikes; lobes of calyx strongly keeled, nearly covering the fruit. Seeds 

 circular, lens-shaped, black, shining, 1/20 inch in diameter. (Figs. 6, b ; 

 14, d; 37.) 



Abundant in gardens, yards, waste grounds and cultivated 

 fields, especially those in which corn, potatoes, etc., have been laid 

 by. June-Oct. The name pigweed properly belongs to some of 

 the members of the next family. The young plants and leaves are 

 in some places used for "greens." The striped beet beetle* (Sys- 

 tena t&niata Say), both in the mature and larval stages, feeds upon 

 it. It is also attacked by several species of fungi and in turn har- 

 bors the melon louse. Remedies: thorough and late cultivation 

 with hoed crops; pulling or mowing and burning before the seeds 

 ripen; harrowing growing crops of grain when the young cereals 

 are about 3 inches high. 



The maple-leaved goosefoot (C. hybridwm L.), leaves without 

 mealy scales, broad and shaped like a maple leaf, and the upright 

 or city goosefoot (C. urbicum L.), leaves also without scales, broad, 

 triangular and truncate at base, both occur frequently in streets, 

 alleys, waste places and borders of fields. They are usually con- 

 fused with lamb 's quarters and should receive the same treatment. 

 A fourth species, as yet listed only from Tippecanoe and Hamil- 

 ton counties, is the nettle-leaved goosefoot (C. murale L.), also a 

 European weed, whose leaves are ovate, thin, sharply and coarsely 

 cut-toothed, the spikes shorter than the leaves and loosely panicled 

 in their axils. 



27. CHENOPODIUM AMBROSIOIDES L. Mexican Tea. American Wormseed. 



(A. I. 2.) 



Stem ascending or erect, grooved, much branched, glandular-pubescent, 

 strongly scented, 2-3 feet high ; leaves oblong or lanceolate, edges undulate 

 or entire, 1-4 inches long. Flowers in small dense, leafy axillary clusters; 

 calyx 3-parted, completely enclosing the fruit. Seeds small, shining, 

 kidney-shaped. 



Frequent in streets, alleys and along river banks in the southern 

 two-thirds of the State. July-Oct. Eemedies the same as for 

 lamb's quarters. 



The wormseed (C. anthelminticum L.), a closely allied species, 

 strongly scented and having the spikes in large leafless terminal 

 panicles, occurs with the Mexican tea and is often confused with it. 

 The essential oils from the seeds of both this and the Mexican tea 

 are used as an anthelmintic or vermifuge, hence the common names 

 of "wormseed." One or the other or both these species are, in 



*The No. 2260 of the Indiana Catalogue of Beetles. 



