258 GERANIACEAE (GERANIUM FAMILY} 



celled ovary and splits from the base when ripe. Seeds two in 

 each cavity, very small, smooth, slightly flattened, reddish brown. 



Means of control 



Prevent seed development. The best way of ridding a lawn of 

 this intruder is to fill a common machine oil-can with crude carbolic 

 acid and squirt a few drops directly on the crown of the root as soon 

 as the first small, pink blossoms make it noticeable among the 

 grass. Or it may be cut from the root with a knife or a small spud. 



ALFILARIA OR FILAREE 



Erbdium cicutarium, L'Her. 



Other English names: Pin Clover, Pin Grass, Pin Weed, Stork's- 



bill, Heron's-bill. 



Introduced. Annual or biennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: April to September. 

 Seed-time: Late May to October. 

 Range: Nova Scotia to Oregon, southward to New Jersey, Texas, 



and Mexico. Very abundant on the Pacific coast. 

 Habitat : Dry soil ; fields and waste places. 



In the arid lands of the West and the Southwest, the Filaree is 

 valued as a pasture plant when young ; but where better forage is 

 plentiful it is regarded as a weed. Stems tufted, six inches to a 

 foot in height, hairy, somewhat viscid, reddish, usually branched 

 above. Leaves pinnatifid, the segments again finely cut and 

 toothed, the lower ones with petioles, the upper ones sessile. 

 Flowers in umbellate clusters of two to twelve, pink or light purple, 

 about a third of an inch broad ; petals five, with rounded tips ; 

 sepals five, bristle-pointed and hairy ; stamen-bearing anthers five, 

 alternating with as many sterile filaments ; carpels and styles five, 

 united into a " stork's-bill " one or two inches long, when ripe split- 

 ting from a central axis into spirally twisted and bearded awns or 

 beaks with sickle-bent tips ; when damp the awns straighten and 

 when dry they recoil, thus being easily caught in the fleeces of 

 sheep, and the seed so distributed. (Fig. 182.) 



Occupying about the same range as this plant is a near relative, 

 the Musk Clover, or Musky Alfilaria (Erodium moschatum, L'Her.), 



