298 ONAGRACEAE (EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY) 



pink as they wither, four long-pointed, reflexed calyx-lobes, 

 usually eight stamens, drooping like a tassel, and a long, declin- 

 ing style with four-parted stigma; ovary at the base of the 

 long calyx-tube, one-celled. Fruits nut-like, four-ribbed, pointed 

 at both ends, finely downy, and nearly a half-inch long. (Fig. 

 207.) 



Means of control 



Leaf-tufts of autumn plants should be spudded off or destroyed 

 by deep hoe-cutting. Plants that have survived to the second 

 season should have flowering-stalks closely cut in their first bloom, 

 the shorn surfaces being treated with salt in order to prevent stool- 

 ing. If not allowed to mature seed the weed is readily suppressed. 



WOOLLY GAURA 

 Gaura vittdsa, Torr. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to September. 



Seed-time: July to October. 



Range: Prairies, Kansas to Arkansas and Texas. 



Habitat: Cultivated crops, grain fields, meadows, pastures. 



A sturdy weed, with a stout, woody, branching stem, one to three 

 feet tall, very objectionable in pasture or meadow, for cattle reject 

 the plant either as green forage or as hay and it dulls and breaks 

 the mowing-machine knives. The whole plant is covered with 

 soft, fuzzy, grayish hairs. Leaves alternate and sessile, but vary 

 in shape from lanceolate to sometimes nearly linear at the upper 

 part of the plant, to wavy-toothed or even pinnatifid ones near the 

 base. Flowers white or pinkish, nearly an inch across, the calyx 

 very hairy, its tube funnel-shaped above the ovary, with linear, 

 reflexed lobes ; the stamens are shorter than the petals, but the 

 style is long, with four-parted stigma. The nut-like fruit is spar- 

 ingly hairy or sometimes smooth, four-ribbed, tapering to both 

 base and apex but narrowing most abruptly to the short, slender 

 pedicel. 



