CHENOPODIACEAE (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY) 117 



the longer branches spreading and usually decumbent but the 

 shorter ones erect. Lower leaves alternate, narrowly linear but 

 rather thick, with the base somewhat dilated, one-nerved, sessile, 

 spreading, a half-inch to two inches long, tipped with a hard, rigid 

 point (cuspidate) ; the upper, floral leaves, or bracts, are very 

 different, being thinner, ovate, pointed, little more than a quarter- 

 inch long, with dry, scarious margins. In the axils of these reduced 

 leaves are the solitary flowers, hardly an eighth of an inch long ; 

 the calyx consists of one delicate sepal, rarely a second one; sta- 

 mens one to three ; styles two. Seed oval, somewhat flattened, 

 with a winged margin, the two persistent styles extended like 

 antennae, completing its likeness to a small bug. 



Means of control 



Prevent seeding by thorough and very late tillage of cultivated 

 crops. Infested meadows should be harvested while the weed is 

 young and succulent. Burn over infested ground where plants 

 have matured, in order to destroy seeds on the surface. 



RUSSIAN THISTLE 



Sdlsola Kali, L. 

 Var. tenufdlia, G. F. W. Meyer 



Other Englis names: Russian Cactus, Russian Tumbleweed, 



Tumbling Thistle. 



Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom : July to September. 

 Seed-time: Earliest flowers mature as early as September, later 



ones clinging to the plant until nearly springtime. 

 Range: Ontario and Manitoba to Idaho; nearly throughout the 



Mississippi Valley ; in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado ; locally 



in Eastern States. 

 Habitat: Dry soil; invades most crops; waste places. 



A most pernicious weed, which was brought to this country in 

 impure flax seed from Russia not many years ago, but its range is 

 already large and is steadily increasing. Because of its excessive 

 prickliness, the Dakota farmers who first made its acquaintance 

 called it Thistle and Cactus; but it is neither, being a Saltwort 

 and a member of the Qooscfoot Family. 



