178 



THE INDIANA WEED BOOK. 



bane (E. ramosus Walt.), distinguished by its smaller size, rougher 

 or more hairy stem, narrower nearly entire leaves and smaller, 



longer rayed heads of flowers. Both are 

 commonly known as "white-top" and are 

 not separated by the average farmer. 

 They are the most pernicious weeds with 

 which the Indiana growers of timothy or 

 clover have to contend; often occurring 

 as winter annuals, producing a spreading 

 tuft of coarsely toothed leaves from buried 

 seeds in autumn, and blossoming the next 

 May or early June. In clover fields these 

 winter annuals are especially troublesome 

 to the first crop, after the field has been 

 in corn and grain for a year or two, being 

 somewhat choked out by the heavier 

 growth of succeeding years. In permanent 

 timothy meadows many of the seeds ripen 

 before the timothy is cut so that they are 

 there a continuous nuisance. Remedies: cutting hay early before 

 the white-top gets in full bloom; in timothy turning in a flock of 

 sheep for a few days before mowing, as they eat the weed and leave 

 the hay; if not too abundant, pulling from meadows while in blos- 

 som; examining the young clover fields in autumn, and if badly 

 infested plowing up for wheat or for spring cultivation. 



The Philadelphia fleabane ( E. phUadelphicus L. ) is quite com- 

 mon in low damp' grass-lands in southern Indiana. It is a perennial, 

 1-3 feet high, its numerous heads with 100-150 long light rose- 

 purple rays. Remedies : drainage and cultivation or repeated mow- 

 ings. From the asters the fleabanes may be easily told by having 

 the bracts in only 1 or 2 rows while the more slender ray-flowers 

 are usuallv in 2 or more rows. 



Pig. 136. (After Clark.) 



148. Achillea millefolium L. Yarrow. Milfoil. (P. I. 2.) 



Stem erect, simple or branched above, glabrous or somewhat hairy, 

 1-3 feet high ; leaves alternate, all finely divided or dissected into narrow 

 segments, those of the stem sessile. Heads small, numerous in a large 

 compound flat-topped cluster ; Involucre egg-shaped, its bracts oblong, 

 hairy, in a few overlapping rows; disk-flowers whitish, fertile; rays 4-6, 

 white or pinkish. Achenes gray, wedge-shaped, about ,1/12 inch long; 

 pappus none. (Fig. 137.) 



Common in old fields, meadows, pastures and along roadsides. 

 June-Oct. An ill-smelling homely weed which thrives as well by 

 the side of the road in a hard dry soil and dust-laden air as in 



