THE BORAGE FAMILY 123 



widely distributed in imported seed; but its ravages have 

 been noted on red clover only in a few instances, and those 

 in southern Ontario and the Pacific Coast in years following 

 an exceptionally late fall without frost until October. 



Remedy: As soon as the pest is noticed, the infested patches 

 should at once be mown with a scythe and the refuse removed 

 and destroyed. Fields badly contaminated should be plowed 

 before the seed has formed, or the crop cut early for hay and 

 the land then plowed. Clover seed should never be taken from 

 fields infested with this pest. 



ALLIED SPECIES: Alfalfa Dodder (Cuscuta species) 

 has given trouble in a few localities in southwestern Ontario, 

 where it is known to have continued in alfalfa for three years. 

 This is believed to be a different species and earlier than the one 

 which commonly gives trouble in red clover. Alfalfa affords 

 a better opportunity for Dodder to mature its seeds, by which 

 it continues in the crop from year to year. Alfalfa fields badly 

 infested should be brought under cultivation. Dodder may 

 be suppressed in small patches by repeated cutting which 

 prevents it from seeding. 



THE BORAGE FAMILY (Boraginaceae). 



The plants of this family are chiefly rough or bristly-hairy 

 herbs with erect, branching stems, alternate simple leaves, 

 without any teeth or divisions, and tubular flowers with 5 corolla 

 lobes and a 5-parted calyx, except in Blue Weed (Echium). 

 The flowers are usually in 1-sided racemes, which, when young, 

 are coiled spirally inwards at the tips but unroll and become 

 nearly straight as the flowers open. The 4 hard 1-seeded or 

 2-seeded nutlets, which contain the true seed, may be rough 

 or highly polished, downy or armed with barbed prickles. The 

 basal scars on the nutlets furnish characteristics useful in identify- 

 ing the various species in commercial seeds. 



