4 THE 'RUSSIAN THISTLE. 



many oi' onr Horticultural Commissioners, anxious to do their duty 

 under its provisions, have sent to this office specimens of various weeds 

 under the impression that they were the Russian thistle, but in no case 

 has this supposition been correct. 



In the first place, it should be understood that the ' * Russian thistle ' ' 

 is not a thistle at all. It does not belong to the thistle family ; in fact, 

 does not resemble a thistle in any respect in its habits of growth, 

 foliage, inflorescence, seeds, or methods of distribution. It is as much 

 like a cabbage as it is like a thistle, and how it got its name is a mystery. 

 It may be that, as the uninformed in California call all plants with 

 thorns cactuses, so the Dakota farmers, when they saw that the plant 

 had prickles, concluded that all prickly plants must be thistles, and so 

 gave it this name; but if our readers want to recognize the "Russian 

 thistle," they must not look for a thistle. In its native land this weed 

 is called " Leap-the-field, " which is certainly more descriptive, and the 

 German colonists in Russia call it "wind witch." Either of these- 

 names is more suitable than that of thistle. 



The Russian thistle is a tumbleweed and is somewhat related to our 

 American tumbleweed (Amaranthus albus), which, in its turn, is near 

 to our common pigweed or red-root (Amaranthus sp.). Its scientific 

 name is Salsola kali var. tragus. It is an annual, coming from seed each 

 year, and in California makes its appearance in March and April. The 

 first leaves are two small tender shoots, about an inch in length, some- 

 what resembling grass blades. Between these seed leaves the true stem 

 soon makes its appearance. This is lined with sharp-pointed, slender 

 leaves, from the axils of which branches are soon thrown out. Its growth 

 during the early stages is rather slow, and the plant, being then young 

 and tender, is eaten by stock; horses, cattle, and sheep devouring it 

 eagerly. When about two months old the plant begins to blossom: it 

 loses its tenderness, the stem becomes dry and rigid, with reddish 

 stripes, the spines on the leaves become hard, and the true leaves fall 

 off. The flowers are very small, of a greenish color, and inconspicuous, 

 each borne in the axil of a leaf and surrounded by three small, spiny 

 bracts. Although the flowers are borne separately upon the stem, they 

 appear in multitudes on the plant, and each produces its seed. 



As the plant increases in age it also increases greatly in size, until it 

 forms a dense, bushy mass of spiny branches, frequently from 2 to 3 feet 

 in height and from 4 to 6 feet in diameter. Each of these branches is 

 lined its entire length with seeds, and it has been estimated that a single 

 plant of average size, from 2 to 3 feet in diameter, and weighing from 

 2 to 3 pounds, at maturity, when dry, will bear from 20,000 to 30,000 

 seeds, while there have been found single plants weighing 20 pounds, 

 with a diameter of 6 feet, which, it was estimated, would yield 200,000 

 seeds. 



