BORAGINACEAE (BORAGE FAMILY) 341 



acute segments, nearly as long as the corolla. The four nutlets 

 each about an eighth of an inch long, ovoid, smooth, shining, 

 pearl-white. 



Means of control 



Deep cutting while in first bloom. If the root is merely shaved 

 at the surface it sprouts again, but when cut well below the crown 

 it dies. Badly infested ground is best treated by putting to a 

 well-tilled hoed crop. 



HOARY PUCCOON 



Lithospermum canescens, Lehm. 



Other English names: Paint Plant, Gray Gromwell. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : April to June. 



Seed time: June to August. 



Range: Ontario to the Northwest Territory, southward to Vir- 

 ginia, Alabama, and Arizona. 



Habitat : Dry soil ; prairies ; fields, meadows, pastures, waste 

 places. 



The thick, deep-boring, red root of this plant yields a red stain 

 or dye; the Indians used it for decorating their naked bodies, 

 before battle or on ceremonial occasions, and they called all plants 

 from which they obtained such juices Puccoon. In grain fields 

 it is even more obnoxious than the Wheat-thief, because it is 

 perennial, and its hard, pearl-like seeds are possessed of exceedingly 

 long vitality. 



Stems six to fifteen inches high, simple or branched at the top, 

 covered with fine, grayish, appressed hairs, particularly when 

 young. Leaves one-half inch to nearly two inches in length, 

 oblong to linear, obtuse, appressed hairy above, downy beneath, 

 entire, sessile. Flowers sessile in the upper axils, the ends of the 

 branches forming dense spikes, usually curved; corolla about a 

 half-inch long, deep orange, the five lobes spread salver-form, the 

 tube of a lighter yellow and longer than the hairy calyx. Nutlets 

 about an eighth of an inch long, ovoid, pointed, keeled, smooth, 

 and lustrous pearl-white. 



Means of control the same as for the Common Gromwell. 



