EUPHORBIACEAE (SPURGE FAMILY) 261 



bristly with stinging hairs, which produce, when in contact with the 

 skin, a much more painful and lasting irritation than do those of the 

 nettle. The leaves are similarly armed ; these are two to six inches 

 or more broad, roundish heart-shaped in outline but three- to five- 

 lobe_dj with prominent veins, wavy-toothed, and with prickly edges 

 and long, bristly petioles. Male and female flowers are separate, 

 the staminate ones usually in terminal clusters, the fertile ones in 

 the axils just below. Calyx of the staminate flower white, fuzzy, 

 the five lobes spread salver-shape, more than a half-inch broad, 

 fragrant ; fertile flowers also five-parted but smaller, soon followed 

 by three-celled, three-seeded, wrinkled, and bristly-hairy pods, 

 about three-fourths of an inch long when mature. Seeds 

 obovoid, smooth, nearly a half-inch long, mottled, and caruncled. 

 (Fig. 183.) 



Means of control 



Cutting, again and again cutting, throughout the growing season, 

 with a sharp steel hoe or a cultivator with broad and very sharp 

 blades, in order to starve the roots and prevent all seed production. 



HOGWORT 



Croton capitdtus, Michx. 



Native. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: July to September. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range : New Jersey to Iowa, southward to Georgia and Texas. 



Habitat: Dry, sandy fields, roadsides, and waste places. 



A very common and troublesome weed in the southern part of 

 our area, particularly in the Gulf States. Stem one to two feet 

 in height, erect, branching, densely soft-woolly with star-shaped 

 hairs. Leaves also finely woolly on both sides, silvery green, 

 oblong lance-shape with rounded or heart-shaped base, entire, 

 the larger lower ones with petioles about as long as the blades, 

 those near the top short-petioled. Flowers clustered at the summit 

 of stem and branches ; they are monoecious, the sterile ones lifted 

 on a short raceme,, at the base of which the fertile ones are crowded 



