COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 469 



A tall, unsightly weed, growing almost anywhere but with a pref- 

 erence for rich, moist, bottom-lands and borders of streams. Stem 

 three to nine feet in height, hairy, erect, branching near the top, 

 winged by the decurrent leaf-bases, very hard and woody when 

 mature and therefore troublesome to harvesting machines. Leaves 

 four inches to a foot long, lance-shaped, feather- veined, saw-toothed, 

 usually rough on both sides, pointed at both ends, the upper ones 

 mostly extending downward on the stem. Heads numerous in 

 large, corymbose terminal clusters ; they have two to ten drooping, 

 pale yellow neutral rays of irregular size (occasionally none at 

 all), and a darker yellow, globose disk, containing about thirty 

 fertile florets. Bracts of the involucre spreading or deflexed, one- 

 to three-rowed. Achenes broadly wedge-shaped, flattened, and 

 winged with a pappus of two diverging awns. 



Means of control 



The deep perennial roots are most effectively dealt with by 

 thorough cultivation of the ground ; where that is impracticable, 

 they may be starved by close cutting in May and June, and again in 

 August and September, salt being used on the shorn surfaces in 

 order to retard recovery. Small areas may be grubbed out or hand- 

 pulled when the ground is soft. 



SUNFLOWER CROWNBEARD 

 Verbeslna helianthoides, Michx. 



Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 



Time of bloom: June to July. 



Seed-time: July to August. 



Range: Ohio to Iowa, southward to Georgia and Texas. 



Habitat: Dry fields, meadows, and waste places. 



Another pernicious Composite, which, like Black-eyed Susan, is 

 broadening its range by the agencies of commercial seeds and baled 

 hay. Stem, stout, simple, hairy, two to four feet tall, widely four- 

 winged by the decurrent bases of the alternate leaves ; these are 

 two to four inches long, narrowly ovate, rough above but softly 

 hairy on the under sides, saw-toothed, and sessile. Heads few in 

 a cluster or solitary, two or three inches broad, with conical disk 



