BORAGINACEAE (BORAGE FAMILY) 



333 



Time of bloom : June to August. 



Seed-time: July to September. 



Range: Quebec to Minnesota, southward to Georgia and Kansas. 



Habitat: Fields, pastures, waste places. 



A worthless weed anywhere, but a special pest in pastures, its 

 downy-hairy leaves having a disagreeable odor and a nauseous 

 taste and the burs being among the worst that beset the fleeces of 

 sheep. 



Root rather thick, deep-boring, black, 

 crowned the first year with tufted, dull 

 green leaves, six inches to a foot in 

 length, oblong, pointed shaped some- 

 what like a hound's tongue with long, 

 channeled petioles ; stem-leaves much 

 smaller, and sessile or clasping by rounded 

 or heart-shaped bases. Flowering stalk 

 one to three feet tall, stout, leafy, branch- 

 ing near the top. Racemes terminal, 

 simple or branching, lengthening as the 

 flowers mature ; the latter reddish purple, 

 the corolla funnel-form, five-lobed, less 

 than a half-inch broad, with five included 

 stamens, a single style and deeply four- 

 lobed ovary. The hairy calyx enlarges 

 as the burs mature; these are comprised 

 of four pointed obovoid, compressed, nut- 

 lets, each about a quarter-inch long, 

 covered with short, barbed prickles, and 

 forming a small pyramid with the withered style for its peak, 

 to which they are attached so slightly that a touch from 

 a passing animal or a garment will detach and carry them 

 away. (Fig. 231.) 



FIG. 231. Hound's 

 Tongue (Cynoglossum offi- 

 cinale). X 4- 



Means of control 



Deep cutting of the crown leaves, with spud or hoe, in late fall 

 or early spring. Fruiting stalks should be cut close to the ground 

 before the first flowers mature. 



