292 ONAGRACEAE (EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY) 



roots absorb a large amount of the food and moisture needed by 

 better plants. 



Stem six to eighteen inches in height, round, red, branching, 

 thickly set with sticky hairs to which small dead or dying insects 

 are often seen adhering. Leaves opposite, long ovate, rough, entire, 

 viscid, especially on midribs and veins, and tapering abruptly to 

 short sticky-hairy petioles. Flowers on very short peduncles, 

 not rising directly from the axils but from the side of the stem 

 between the opposite leaf -stalks ; they are less than a half-inch 

 broad, bluish purple, with six very unequal petals, a tubular six- 

 toothed, twelve-ribbed calyx, swollen at base on the upper side, 

 and often ruddy-colored like the stem ; stamens eleven or some- 

 times twelve; style slender with two-lobed stigma; ovary un- 

 equally two-celled, with a curved gland at its base. The capsule 

 bursts lengthwise and the seeds protrude from its side while still 

 immature and attached to one side of the placenta; they ripen 

 while exposed to the open air and then drop off into the soil, where 

 they are said to retain their vitality for several years. 



Means of control 



Prevent seed development by closely cutting or uprooting the 

 plants while in their first bloom. 



SEED-BOX 

 Ludvigia alternifdlia, L. 



Other English name: Rattle-box. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to September. 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range: New Hampshire to Ontario and Michigan, southward to 



Florida, Kansas, and Texas. 

 Habitat: Swamps, low meadows, banks of streams, and ditches. 



Roots fascicled, spindle-shaped, rather thick and fleshy. Stems 

 two to three feet tall, erect, round, smooth, with a strong bark and 

 many branches. Leaves alternate, entire, with marginal veins, 

 smooth or nearly so, pointed at both ends, two to four inches in 

 length, sessile or with very short petioles. Flowers solitary in 



