180 CRUCIFERAE (MUSTARD FAMILY) 
Means of control 
Carpet Cress usually grows in patches, which should be hoed out 
very early in spring before any seeds are developed. Successive 
crops will probably appear from seeds that have lain dormant in the 
soil, and, these should be given like treatment. 
SHEPHERD’S PURSE 
Capsélla Biursa-pastoris, Medic. 
Other English names: Caseweed, St. James’ Weed, Mothers’ Hearts. 
Introduced. Annual and winter annual. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: March to November in the northern part of the 
country. Ali the year round where not covered with snow for 
autumn seedlings bloom in winter if not checked by cold and spring 
seedlings take up the succession in summer. 
Seed-time: April to December. 
Range: All cultivated regions of the world. 
Habitat: Any soil; minedes any crop. 
With the exception at Chickweed, this is 
probably the commonest weed on earth. But 
usually it is not regarded with so much hos- 
tility as are some other plants that really do less 
harm. It is very prolific and the seeds have 
long vitality; it absorbs much fertility from the 
soil; and it often harbors the club-root fungous 
disease so ruinous to cabbage, cauliflower, tur- 
nips, and radishes, and will infect soil where 
those plants may be cultivated. (Fig. 124.) 
The plant is extremely variable, but ordi- 
narily it has a rather deep taproot with many 
slender rootlets, and the stem is slender and 
branching, six to twenty inches high. Base 
leaves usually pinnatifid and tufted in a ro- 
sette, though late spring seedlings often send 
up a fruiting stalk directly from the root, with- 
out the tuft of lower leaves; upper leaves lance- 
Fic. 124.—Shep- shaped and clasping, with small, pointed auricles 
herd’s Purse (Cap- e 3 ais ees 
sella Bursa-pas- at base. Flowers white, minute, terminating a 
torts). Xt lengthening raceme of triangular, flattened, heart- 
