488 



COMPOSITAE (COMPOSITE FAMILY) 



beneath. Flowers in loose corymbose clusters, the heads on 

 long, slender pedicels, about a half-inch broad, with six to fifteen 

 white rays, notched at the tips ; rays and disk-florets both fertile. 

 Achenes compressed oblong, without pappus. 



Means of control the same as for common Yarrow. (Fig. 339.) 



MAYWEED 

 Anthemis Cotula, L. 



Other English names: Dog Fennel, Dog Finkle, Dillweed, Fetid 



Chamomile, Stinking Daisy, White Stinkweed. 

 Introduced. Annual and winter annual. Propagates by seeds. 

 Time of bloom: June to October. 

 Seed-time: July to November. 

 Range : All over North America except the extreme North. Native 



of Europe, but widely distributed in Asia, Africa, and Australia. 

 Habitat : Nearly all soils ; invades almost all crops. 



In fields and along roadsides, and particularly in barnyards, 

 where the soil is enriched with the constant droppings of cattle, 

 this vile weed thrives ; for no grazing animal will eat it because of 

 its rank odor and acrid juices. The modern farmer rides his "self 

 binder" through the grain fields and doesn't 

 curse the Mayweeds as did the men who had to 

 "cradle the wheat" and bind it with hand- 

 twisted straw withes, and whose hands, arms, 

 and feet became as though scalded from repeated 

 contact with the acrid, glandular foliage of this 

 weed and from its seedy tops sifting into their 

 shoes as they swung the cradle or the scythe. 

 " The Mayweed doth burn and the Thistle doth 

 fret," wrote Thomas Tusser, sympathizing with 

 his harvesters, nearly four hundred years ago; 

 and there are localities in this country where the 

 words are yet applicable. 



Stem six to twenty inches in height, smooth 

 below but glandular and somewhat hairy above, 

 much branched, and spreading. Leaves alternate, 

 sessile, pinnate, twice or thrice divided into 

 linear, acute segments. Heads numerous, soli- 



FIG. 340. 

 Mayweed (Anthe- 

 mis Cotula). X \. 



