118 CHENOPODIACEAE (GOOSEFOOT FAMILY) 
The seedlings are innocent-looking, grass-like shoots, divided 
into two blades, appearing in April, May, and June. The young 
stalks are tender and succulent, the young leaves an inch or two 
long with young branchlets in their axils; at this stage of growth 
the plant is good forage which cattle and sheep eat greedily. But 
with the approach of summer weather the plants change their 
character: the stem becomes hard 
and woody, two to three feet high, 
ridged, and streaked with red lines, 
diffusely branched and spreading 
broadly, crowding to death all 
lesser growth. The first leaves 
fall away; those of later growth 
are not more than a half-inch 
long, mere awl-like spines slightly 
broadened at base and having on 
each side a sharp pointed bract 
which is somewhat shorter. (Fig. 
72.) Flowers axillary, sessile, and 
y usually solitary, very small, green- 
er ish white or often pink; calyx 
ze” ff five-parted, with five stamens 
and two styles; when mature the 
calyx-lobes are horizongally winged 
on the back, forming a papery 
margin which often helps the seed 
to be carried before the wind, in- 
- dependent of the tumbling of the 
Fie. 72.— Russian Thistle (Salsola parent plant. Seed very small, 
Holt, wae: Veneifolwa), ks reddish in color, irregular in 
shape but somewhat like a flattened top, held in place by fine 
tufts of coiled hair at the base of the persistent calyx, so that 
only the ripest will fall when the plant is broken from its hold 
on the soil and sent tumbling before the wind; but they continue 
to ripen and shake loose all winter as the weeds are trundled about. 
According to the size attained, a thrifty plant may bear ten thou- 
sand to a hundred thousand seeds, which retain their vitality in 
the soil for several seasons. 
