CRUCIFERAE (MUSTARD FAMILY) 173 
sinuate-pinnatifid, spiny-toothed and more or less prickly on 
midrib and larger veins, sessile and clasping. Flowers lemon- 
yellow or cream-colored, two or three inches broad, sessile or 
on very short peduncles; sepals long and_prickle-pointed; 
stamens many with filaments a half-inch or more long. Capsule 
an inch or more long, ellipsoid, prickly, opening by three to six 
valves at the top. Seeds small, grayish brown, crested on one 
side. (Fig. 118.) 
Means of control 
Prevent seed production. Pull, hoe-cut, or spud out autumn 
leaf-tufts; closely and frequently cut flowering stalks while in 
early bloom. Cultivation of the ground destroys the weed if con- 
tinued for a sufficient time to stir all dormant seeds into growth. 
GRAY BERTEROA 
Berterda incana, DC. 
Other English name: Hoary Alyssum. 
Introduced. Annual and winter annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
Range: Maine to Michigan, southward to New Jersey and Missouri. 
Habitat: Grain and clover fields, waste places. 
This weed came from western Europe but a few years ago, in red 
clover seed, from which, it is very hard to remove. Wherever 
established, it has shown itself to be about as prolific and adaptive 
as Field Pepper grass, and therefore newly entered plants should 
meet with prompt and severe treatment. (Fig. 119.) 
Stem one to two feet tall, slender, with numerous slim branches 
near the top, gray-green with fine, forking hairs. Basal leaves 
three or four inches long, spatulate, usually grouped in a small 
rosette; stem-leaves alternate, lance-shaped, sessile ; all have entire 
edges. Flowers in crowded terminal racemes, and, like all the 
Cruciferee, have six stamens, four long and two short; four 
sepals, four petals, arranged in cross-form and situated below the 
ovary; in this species they are white, minute, the petals cleft at 
the tip. Pods elliptic and but little compressed silicles, gray-hairy 
