CARYOPHJLLACEAE (PINK FAMILY) 



143 



ten-ribbed, with five long, pointed lobes extending beyond the 

 petals; styles five, opposite the petals; stamens ten. Capsule 

 ovoid, one-celled, sometimes exceeding a half-inch in length, and 

 containing twenty-five to forty black or very dark brown seeds, 

 rounded triangular in shape and roughened 

 with rows of short teeth ; the size and 

 weight of the seeds make them very diffi- 

 cult to remove from grain among which 

 they are mixed. When in the soil they 

 retain their vitality for several years. 



Means of control 



Sow clean seed. When Cockle is first 

 discovered among the grain, hand-pull and 

 destroy the plants before any seed matures. 

 If a field is too rankly infested for hand- 

 pulling, an application of Copper sulfate 

 or Iron sulfate spray will so injure the 

 tissues of leaf and flower as to prevent the 

 development of seed. Ground where 

 Cockle seed has ripened and been dis- 

 tributed should not be used for grain 

 again until after some cultivated crop 

 has been given a place in the rotation, x 1. 



RAGGED ROBIN 

 Lychnis Flos-cuculi, L. 



Other English names: Meadow Pink, Meadow Campion, Cuckoo 



Flower. 



Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: June to August. 

 Seed-time: July to September. 



Range : New Brunswick to New Jersey, and westward to Ohio. 

 Habitat : Moist soil ; meadows and waste places. 



An escape from flower gardens, and a pernicious weed wherever 

 established because of its perennial roots. Its seeds are said to 

 have some of the same poisonous properties as those of its relative 

 the Corn Cockle, but not to so dangerous an extent. (Fig. 95.) 



