PLATE 6. 



FALSE-FLAX, Camelina saliva, Crantz. 



Other English name : Gold of Pleasure. 



Other Latin names : Myagrum sativum, L. ; Camelina saliva, Fries. ; 

 Cameliua vi-acrocarpa, Reich. 



(Noxious: Dom., Man., N.W.) 



Introduced from Europo. Annual and winter annual, 2 to 3 feet high; 

 erect, branched above. Root leaves lanceolate and narrowed into a petiole; 

 upper leaves arrow-shaped, sharply pointed. The lower leaves and the lower 

 part of the stem downy with star-shaped hairs. The upper part of the stem 

 smooth and glaucous. Flowers numerous, small, one-eighth of an inch 

 across, pale greenish yellow. Pods three-eighths of an inch, balloon-shaped 

 or pear-shaped, margined and tipped with a slender beak, on slender as- 

 cending pedicels, each containing about 10 seeds. Racemes much elongated 

 in fruit. Seeds [Plate 55, fig. 45 — natural size and enlarged 4 times] very 

 variable in size, about ^V of an inch, pale yellowish brown. The groove 

 between the radicle and the seed leaves distinct, that between the seed 

 leaves less so. Seed coat finely pitted. Scar of attachment white, in a notch 

 between the tip of the radicle and the seed leaves. When the seeds are 

 soaked in water, they develop a copious coat of mucilage and a fine pile of 

 transparent hairs. The seeds have been used as food on account of their 

 mucilage and oil, both of which resemble those of linseed. The plant has 

 been considerably cultivated for these products in Germany and France. 



Time of Flowering : June to August; seed ripe July to September. 



Propagation : By seeds only. 



Occurrence : All through Canada in waste places and along railways. A 

 noxious weed in the West and in western Ontario. 



Injury: A common weed in the West in grain crops, particularly on 

 stubble, and in flax fields. In Ontario, in fields of fall grain. The seeds are 

 frequently found in the seed of flax, clover and grass. 



Remedy : Hand-pull, surface cultivation in fall and spring. Summer- 

 fallow early. 



In Ontario this and similar weeds may be kept in check by summer-fal- 

 lowing early and then sowing the same season with rape in drills 2G inches 

 anart, the horse hoeing to be supplemented with more or less hand hoeuig. 

 This may be followed the next spring by another hoed crop as corn, potatoes 

 or turnips. Rape is one of tlie best cleaning crops that can be grown if care- 

 fully cultivated, and where it is followed the next year with a hoed crop, 

 few weeds can withstand the treatment. 



There is another species of False-flax whi('h is found occasionally, and 

 which is rapidly bocnriiini? more abundant and wide spread, both in the West 

 and in Ontario. Tliis is the SMAi.L-SEEnEn Fai.se-flax, Camelina mirro- 

 carpa, Andrz., which resembles the ordinary weed very much, but has smaller 

 pods and smaller and darker-coloured seeds. 



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