152 PORTULACACEAE (PURSLANE FAMILY) 
nent as to be angled wings ; the five petals pink, veined with deeper 
pink, notched at the outer edge; stamens ten; styles two. Cap- 
sule ovoid, four-toothed, imperfectly two- to four-celled, containing 
twenty to thirty hard, nearly globular, black seeds, about a tenth 
of an inch in diameter. These seeds retain their vitality for several 
years when buried in the soil. 
Means of control 
Sow clean seed. A Montana miller stated that the quantity of 
Cow Cockle seed cleansed yearly from the wheat brought to his 
mill, and supposed to be already clean, was about a ton. Seed 
should be made as clean to sow in one’s fields as to be eaten in bread. 
Raking the grain fields with a weeding harrow when the crop is but 
a few inches high will kill very many of the Cockle seedlings ; those 
not killed by the harrow should be hand-pulled at the time of their 
earliest bloom, when they show very conspicuously among the grain. 
The process is a paying one, even though the weeds are so many as 
to make the task somewhat strenuous, for the food and moisture 
used in their development is stolen from the rightful crop, which is 
the poorer for it. Stubbles where the weed has matured seed 
should be burned over and the ground used for a cultivated crop 
before being again seeded to grain. 
PURSLANE 
Portuldca oleracea, L. 
Other English names: .Pussley, Wild Portulaca, Duckweed. 
Introduced. Annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: Late June until cut off by frost. 
Seed-time: July until killed by frost. 
Range: Throughout North America except the northern part. 
Habitat: Cultivated ground, waste places. 
The noted experiments with buried seeds, conducted by W. J. 
Beal, Botanist of the Michigan Agricultural Experiment Station, 
demonstrated that the seeds of Purslane will germinate after having 
lain dormant in the soil for thirty years. Few gardens are without 
the weed. It is said to harbor both the melon plant louse and 
