150 



CARYOPHYLLACEAE (PINE FAMILY) 



Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 

 Time of bloom: July to September. 

 Seed-time: Late August to November. 

 Range: Throughout eastern North America. 



Habitat: Along roadsides and railways; in old pastures and on 

 waste ground. 



In pioneer days, when the art of soap-making had not approached 

 its present excellence, housewives knew that fine woolens and silks 

 could be well cleansed with a slippery, 

 sudsy solution made by bruising the 

 mucilaginous stems and leaves or young 

 rootstocks of this plant in water. For 

 this purpose a patch of it was kept 

 handy, and hence its names Soapwort 

 and Fuller's Herb. The cylindrical 

 roots not the stolons are used in 

 medicine, and are worth five to ten 

 cents a pound in the drug market when 

 collected in late autumn or early spring, 

 carefully cleansed, and dried. (Fig. 101.) 

 Stems in tufts, one to two feet tall, 

 stout and smooth, with swollen joints. 

 Leaves opposite, long ovate, three- 

 nerved, pointed, rather thick, smooth, 

 sessile or with short, broad petioles. 

 Flowers pink, usually double, in large, 

 dense, terminal, corymbose clusters ; 

 cal ^ x tubular > nve-toothed ; stamens 

 ten ; styles two ; Ovary one-celled or 

 sometimes incompletely two- or four-celled. Capsule oblong, 

 conic, opening by four short teeth at apex. Seeds rough, dark 

 slate-color or dull black, shortened kidney-shaped; they con- 

 tain a poisonous property called saponin, like that which makes 

 dangerous the seeds of the related Cow Cockle and Corn Cockle. 



Means of control 



If the patches are small, grubbing out is the best remedy. Caustic 

 soda or hot brine is effectual, but the ground will be barren until 



