COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 449 



common names. Stem stout, four to ten feet tall, smooth or nearly 

 so, branching at the top into a loose and sprawling panicle. Leaves 

 alternate, mostly basal, a foot or more in length and about six 

 inches wide, thick and leathery, rough on both sides but especially 

 so beneath, heart-shaped at base and pointed at tip, sharply 

 toothed, with long, stout, grooved petioles. Heads numerous, two 

 or three inches broad, with many long, yellow rays which are pistil- 

 late and fertile ; disk-florets perfect but sterile ; involucre hemi- 

 spheric, its bracts erect, obtuse, and smooth. Achenes oblong, 

 flat, narrowly winged, slightly notched at the top, and two-toothed. 



Means of control 



Turning out the perennial roots with a plow in the fall is the 

 surest method of destruction ; but as it is most frequently a weed 

 of permanent grasslands, deep cutting with sharp hoe or spud, 

 just before the blooming season, is the next best remedy, using a 

 handful of salt on the cut surface of the roots in order to retard 

 their recovery. 



CUP PLANT 

 Silphium perfolidtum, L. 



Other English names: Indian Cup, Ragged Cup. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom : July to September. 



Seed-time: August to October. 



Range: Ontario to the Dakotas, southward to Louisiana and 



Texas. 

 Habitat : Prairies ; meadows, pastures, and waste places. 



A large, stout weed with square, pale green stems, often more 

 than an inch in thickness at the base, four to eight feet tall, 

 growing from thick, perennial roots in great tufts, or thickets. 

 Leaves opposite, large, broadly oval, pointed, coarsely toothed, the 

 upper ones united at their bases and forming rather deep cups 

 which retain dew and rain. Lower leaves very large and abruptly 

 narrowed to winged petioles, which are also joined at base ; for 

 their size the leaves are rather thin, and are of a sandpaper 

 roughness on both sides. Flower-heads few because of the curious 

 progression of bloom ; the first one grows from the center of a cup, 

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