CHENOPODIACEAE (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY) 117 
the longer branches spreading and usually decumbent but the 
shorter ones erect. Lower leaves alternate, narrowly linear but 
rather thick, with the base somewhat dilated, one-nerved, sessile, 
spreading, a half-inch to two inches long, tipped with a hard, rigid 
point (cuspidate); the upper, floral leaves, or bracts, are very 
different, being thinner, ovate, pointed, little more than a quarter- 
inch long, with dry, scarious margins. In the axils of these reduced 
leaves are the solitary flowers, hardly an eighth of an inch long; 
the calyx consists of one delicate sepal, rarely a second one; sta- 
mens one to three; styles two. Seed oval, somewhat flattened, 
with a winged margin, the two persistent styles extended like 
antenne, completing its likeness to a small bug. 
Means of control 
Prevent seeding by thorough and very late tillage of cultivated 
crops. Infested meadows should be harvested while the weed is 
young and succulent. Burn over infested ground where plants 
have matured, in order to destroy seeds on the surface. 
RUSSIAN THISTLE 
Sdlsola Kali, L. 
Var. tenufolia, G. F. W. Meyer 
Other Englis names: Russian Cactus, Russian Tumbleweed, 
Tumbling Thistle. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of blaom: July to September. 
Seed-time: Earliest flowers mature as early as September, later 
ones clinging to the plant until nearly springtime. 
Range: Ontario and Manitoba to Idaho; nearly throughout the 
Mississippi Valley; in Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado; locally 
in Eastern States. 
Habitat: Dry soil; invades most crops; waste places. 
A most pernicious weed, which was brought to this country in 
impure flax seed from Russia not many years ago, but its range is 
already large and is steadily increasing. Because of its excessive 
prickliness, the Dakota farmers who first made its acquaintance 
called it Thistle and Cactus; but it is neither, being a Saltwort 
and a member of the Goosefoot Family. 
