464 



COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



The range of this weed is being 

 rapidly extended by the agency of 

 baled hay and grass seeds. It is a 

 handsome plant, two to four feet 

 tall, with slender, rough-hairy stem, 

 usually without branches. Leaves 

 dark green, three to eight inches in 

 length, alternate or the lower ones 

 opposite, lance-shaped, hairy, long- 

 pointed, the lower ones five-ribbed, 

 toothed, and petioled, the upper ones 

 entire and sessile. Heads large, soli- 

 tary, with a conical disk having deep 

 purple, tubular, perfect, and fertile 

 florets surrounded by twelve to 

 twenty large, drooping rays which 

 are pistillate but sterile; these are 

 dull magenta-red, about two inches 

 long, notched at their tips. Bracts 

 of the involucre imbricated in three 

 to five rows, rather soft and lax, 

 nearly linear, and finely hairy. 



FIG. 324. Purple Cone-flower Achenes short and thick, the pappus 

 a toothed crown. (Fig. 324.) 



(Brauneria purpurea). X \. 



Means of control 



If the infestation is new and the area not too large, it will pay to 

 rid the soil of the perennial roots by hand-pulling the plants before 

 the development of seed. Rankly infested ground requires to be 

 put under cultivation. 



PRAIRIE CONE-FLOWER 



Lepachys columnaris, T. & G. 

 (Ratibida columnaris, D. Don.) 



Other English names: Long-headed Cone-flower, Cone-headed 



Daisy. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom : May to August. 



