76 



THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



Both roots and berries of the pokeweed are used in medicine. 

 A Kentucky boy whom, the writer knew ate the berries for cramp 

 in the stomach, claiming that they were a certain cure. If gathered 

 for sale they should be collected in autumn and the clusters of 

 berries dried in the shade, while the roots should be cleaned, cut 

 crosswise into slices and carefully dried. They act upon the 

 bowels and cause in time violent vomiting. Extracts made from 

 them are used for itch, other skin diseases and rheumatism. The 

 dried root brings from 2 to 5 cents and the berries about 5 cents 

 per pound. 



THE CARPET-WEED FAMILY. AIZOACEJ3. 



Prostrate and branching herbs, with small whitish flowers 

 borne in the axils of the whorled leaves. Petals none; calyx 



5-parted; stamens 3-5; ovary 3- 

 celled, forming in fruit a capsule 

 which splits lengthwise. Seeds very 

 small, kidney-shaped and marked 

 with lines. 



35. MOLLTTGO VERTICILLATA L. Carpet- 

 weed. Indian Chickweed. (A. 

 N. 2.) 



Stem spreading and forming circu- 

 lar mats, sometimes 2 feet in diameter ; 

 leaves in whorls of fives or sixes, 

 spoon-shaped or linear, entire. Sepals 

 oblong, white on the inner side, shorter 

 than the egg-shaped capsules which are 

 many seeded. (Fig. 43.) 



Fig. 43. Showing a flower and a cross-section 

 of fruit. (After Britton and Brown.) 



Frequent in bare sandy spots, cultivated fields and gardens, and 

 springing from the cracks between bricks in sidewalks. May-Get. 

 Remedies: pulling or hoe-cutting before the seeds ripen; sowing 

 winter annuals after corn and potatoes. 



THE PURSLANE FAMILY. PORTULACACE^E. 



Fleshy tasteless herbs with entire leaves. Flowers regular, 

 sepals 2 ; petals 4 or 5 ; stamens 5-20 ; styles 2-8 united below the 

 middle. Pod 1 -celled, with few or many seeds rising on stalks 

 from the base. Only 6 species of the family are listed from the 

 State, two of which, called "spring beauties, " are among the earli- 

 est and prettiest of our springtime wild flowers. Here belongs also 

 the cultivated portulaca and the following common garden weed: 



