WEEDS OF THE THISTLE FAMILY. 



181 



Fig. 139. (After Shaw.) 



of the pastures, rendering them quite white when the plant is in 

 blossom. It spreads by the seeds, which are distributed in hay, 

 manure, and various farm seeds, and also, when 

 started in any spot, by short offshoots from the 

 perennial rootstocks, which must be killed be- 

 fore the plant can be wholly eradicated. In 

 meadows it is a rank and aggressive weed soon 

 choking out the grasses, yet experiments have 

 proven that as far as the chemical composition is 

 concerned, the ox-eye daisy is fully the equal of 

 timothy hay in food constituents. However, 

 digestibility and the liking of live stock for it 

 were not taken into account. Cutting the hay 

 early and thus preventing the maturity of the 

 daisy seeds is one of the best methods of clear- 

 ing it out of meadows. At least 10 days are 

 necessary after the blossoms open for the seeds 

 to mature so that they will germinate. If tho 

 hay be cut during this period reseeding is pre- 

 vented and many of the rootstocks die. As the 

 plant is shallow-rooted, fields and meadows can 

 be readily cleaned of it by plowing, thorough cultivation and short 

 rotation of crops. In permanent pastures its eradication is a much 

 more serious problem, about the only remedies being repeated mow- 

 ings, or grazing closely with sheep. Farmers not now troubled with 

 the weed should be on the especial look-out for it, and isolated 

 plants which appear in a new place should be quickly dug or 

 pulled. 



On account of its beauty the ox-eye daisy is often cultivated by 

 florists and is much used in boquets and for decorations. Instances 

 are on record where its spread has been traced to the throwing 

 away of wilted flowers in which the seeds were almost ripe. With 

 its conspicuous white rays to attract from far and wide bees and 

 other insects to aid in the fertilization of its numerous and closely 

 packed disk-flowers it is one of the highest of plants. The asters, 

 the fleabanes, the dog-fennel and the ox-eye daisy, all have the ray- 

 flowers thus differing in hue from the central florets and, as Grant 

 Allen has well said, form a group "of the commonest, most 

 numerous and most successful of plants. They really stand to all 

 other plants in the same relation as man stands toward other ani- 

 mals." It is well fitting, therefore, that this weed book should end 

 with these, the highest and most successful of weeds among the 

 great kingdom of plants. 



