486 



COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



formed of one row of oblong, purplish bracts, united into 

 a cup, with a few short, loose, and spreading ones at the base. 

 Achenes dark, wedge-shaped, covered with fine, upward-pointing 

 bristles ; the pappus is a ring of stiff, bristly hairs. (Fig. 337.) 



Means of control 



Small areas newly infested should be pulled while in earliest 

 flower, allowing no seed to develop. Ground on which plants have 

 matured should be burned over, in order to destroy the seed on the 

 surface. 



YARROW 



Achillea Millefblium, L. 



Other English names: Milfoil, Thousand-leaf, Sanguinary, Blood- 

 wort, Soldier's Woundwort, Nosebleed Weed. 

 Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds and by rootstocks. 

 Time of bloom : June to October. 



Seed-time: August to November. 



Range: Throughout North America, and in 



most parts of the world. 



Habitat: Meadows, pastures, roadsides, and 

 waste places. 



A most hardy weed, thriving in nearly any 

 kind of soil and indifferent to tropic heat or 

 arctic cold; well named for the invulnerable 

 Achilles, who is said to have used the herb for 

 the cure of his Myrmidons wounded at the 

 siege of Troy. However that may be, the 

 plant is still valued medicinally and its dried 

 leaves and flowers bring three to five cents a 

 pound in the drug market. 



Stem one to two feet tall, stiffly erect, simple 

 or sometimes forked above, webby-haired or 

 nearly smooth. Leaves alternate, the lower 

 ones sometimes ten inches long, lance-shaped 

 in outline, deep green, twice pinnatifid and 



the segments finelv toothed; stem leaves 

 FIG. 338. Yarrow . .. . * ' . .. 



(Achillea Millefolium). less divided, narrow and sessile; the foliage is 

 xj. strong-scented, its taste biting and bitter. 



