CRUCIFERAE (MUSTARD FAMILY) 173 



sinuate-pinnatifid, spiny-toothed and more or less prickly on 

 midrib and larger veins, sessile and clasping. Flowers lemon- 

 yellow or cream-colored, two or three inches broad, sessile or 

 on very short peduncles ; sepals long and prickle-pointed ; 

 stamens many with filaments a half-inch or more long. Capsule 

 an inch or more long, ellipsoid, prickly, opening by three to six 

 valves at the top. Seeds small, grayish brown, crested on one 

 side. (Fig. 118.) 



Means of control 



Prevent seed production. Pull, hoe-cut, or spud out autumn 

 leaf -tufts ; closely and frequently cut flowering stalks while in 

 early bloom. Cultivation of the ground destroys the weed if con- 

 tinued for a sufficient time to stir all dormant seeds into growth. 



GRAY BERTEROA 

 Berterda incana, DC. 



Other English name: Hoary Alyssum. 



Introduced. Annual and winter annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to September. 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range: Maine to Michigan, southward to New Jersey and Missouri. 



Habitat: Grain and clover fields, waste places. 



This weed came from western Europe but a few years ago, in red 

 clover seed, from which it is very hard to remove. Wherever 

 established, it has shown itself to be about as prolific and adaptive 

 as Field Pepper grass, and therefore newly entered plants should 

 meet with prompt and severe treatment. (Fig. 119.) 



Stem one to two feet tall, slender, with numerous slim branches 

 near the top, gray-green with fine, forking hairs. Basal leaves 

 three or four inches long, spatulate, usually grouped in a small 

 rosette ; stem-leaves alternate, lance-shaped, sessile ; all have entire 

 edges. Flowers in crowded terminal racemes, and, like all the 

 Cruciferse, have six stamens, four long and two short; four 

 sepals, four petals, arranged in cross-form and situated below the 

 ovary ; in this species they are white, minute, the petals cleft at 

 the tip. Pods elliptic and but little compressed silicles, gray-hairy 



