HTPERICACEAE (ST. JOHN'S- WORT FAMILY) 285 



an inch long, light green, sessile, -more or less black-dotted and 

 specked all over with pellucid dots. Flowers in terminal cymose 

 clusters, very showy ; petals five, golden yellow, nearly a half- 

 inch long, with black-dotted margins; stamens many, separated 

 into three groups, their anthers black-dotted; styles three, di- 

 vergent ; calyx of five lance-shaped, acute sepals, specked with 

 pellucid dots. Capsule ovoid, three-celled, filled with small, 

 rounded, oblong seeds, their surface delicately pitted in rows. 

 Too often an impurity among grass seeds. 



Means of control 



The plant is best destroyed by hand-pulling when the soil is 

 sufficiently soft to slacken its hold on the long, woody roots. Or 

 it may be grubbed out, care being taken to leave no stray runners. 

 A meadow or a pasture too rankly infested to be so cleansed should 

 be turned under and put to a well-tilled hoed crop. 



SHRUBBY ST. JOHN'S-WORT 



Hyperlcum prolificum, L. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : July to September. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range: New Jersey to Southern Ontario and Minnesota, south- 

 ward to Georgia and Arkansas. 



Habitat: Dry soil; sandy fields, rocky upland pastures, waste 

 places. 



A very beautiful and ornamental plant, provided it might be 

 restricted to a corner of a flower garden. Stems one to four feet 

 tall, strong and woody, branching near the base, the branches 

 ascending, the branchlets with side-ridges making them two-edged. 

 Leaves two to three inches in length, pellucid dotted, narrowly 

 oblong, obtuse, tapering toward the base, the lower ones with 

 short petioles, those near the top sessile ; in the axils are usually 

 tufts of smaller leaves. Flowers bright yellow, each nearly an 

 inch broad, in terminal and axillary clusters, very numerous; 

 sepals unequal, shorter than the petals ; stamens very numerous, 



