180 



CRVCIFERAE (MUSTARD FAMILY) 



Means of control 



Carpet Cress usually grows in patches, which should be hoed out 

 very early in spring before any seeds are developed. Successive 

 crops will probably appear from seeds that have lain dormant in the 

 soil, and these should be given like treatment. 



SHEPHERD'S PURSE 

 Capsella Bursa-pastdris, Medic. 



Other English names: Caseweed, St. James' Weed, Mothers' Hearts. 

 Introduced. Annual and winter annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 L Time of bloom: March to November in the northern part of the 

 country. All the year round where not covered with snow for 

 autumn seedlings bloom in winter if not checked by cold and spring 

 seedlings take up the succession in summer. 



Seed-time : April to December. 



Range: All cultivated regions of the world. 



Habitat : Any soil ; invades any crop. 



With the exception of Chickweed, this is 

 probably the commonest weed on earth. But 

 usually it is not regarded with so much hos- 

 tility as are some other plants that really do less 

 harm. It is very prolific and the seeds have 

 long vitality ; it absorbs much fertility from the 

 soil ; and it often harbors the club-root fungous 

 disease so ruinous to cabbage, cauliflower, tur- 

 nips, and radishes, and will infect soil where 

 those plants may be cultivated. (Fig. 124.) 



The plant is extremely variable, but ordi- 

 narily it has a rather deep taproot with many 

 slender rootlets, and the stem is slender and 

 branching, six to twenty inches high. Base 

 leaves usually pinnatifid and tufted in a ro- 

 sette, though late spring seedlings often send 

 up a fruiting stalk directly from the root, with- 

 out the tuft of lower leaves ; upper leaves lance- 



shaped and clasping, with small, pointed auricles 



, 6 , . . . 



sell a Bursa-pa's- at base. Flowers white, minute, terminating a 



toris) . x J. lengthening raceme of triangular, flattened, heart- 



i , 



herd's Purse (Cap- 



