THREE TROUBLESOME WEEDS. 19 



DESCRIPTION. 



Stem branching", a foot or two high, horny or yellowish with 

 copious star-shaped hairs. Leaves once or twice divided, 

 resembling those of the water-melon. Flowers yellow, about 

 an inch in diameter with a short tube and obtuse lobes some- 

 what irregular. Stamens dissimilar, the lowest longer and 

 stouter and curved inward at the beak. Fruit enclosed and 

 adhering to the close-fitting, very prickly calyx. Seeds thick, 

 wavy, wrinkled. The plant is related to the Irish potato, 

 Night-shade, Horse Nettle and Jerusalem Cherry. The plant 

 reduced, and the flower and seed natural size, are shown in the 

 cut which is taken from a bulletin of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



HABITS. 



Annual. Seeding late in northern states. Seeds not abund- 

 ant. Not usual in well cultivated grounds but preferring road 

 sides and waste places. The plant is bushy and breaks off 

 and is blown about by the wind. It is a coarse, prickly, potato- 

 like weed, producing round fruits covered with spines that 

 become attached to the hair or wool of animals. 



TREATMENT. 



As the plant is an annual it would be destroyed in a single 

 season if prevented from seeding. As it is liable to occur only 

 sparingly in Maine, about railroad stations and where western 

 grain is handled, the scattering plants may be pulled up before 

 they seed. If it should appear in fields from sowing western 

 grain, the patches should be carefully cut before seeding. As 

 the plants are apt to put out flowering branches about the 

 roots after early cutting, a second cutting may be necessary. 



