284 HYPERICACEAE (ST. JOHN’S-WORT FAMILY) 
The whole plant is softly hairy. Flowers two inches or more broad, 
cream-yellow, with a purplish brown spot at the base of each of the 
five petals. Fully ripened pods are two to four inches long, nearly 
three-quarters of an inch thick at base, tapering to a point, and 
ten-ribbed. The ribs soon become strongly fibrous, and when the 
fruit is wanted for food, the pods must be picked when about two 
days old. Seeds dark brown, nearly globular, with a white eye on 
one side; they retain their vitality for about five years. 
Means of control 
Small patches may be hand-pulled or grubbed out. More 
extensive areas require to be put under cultivation, in order to 
destroy the perennial roots, and stir dormant seeds into germination. 
COMMON ST. JOHN’S-WORT 
Hypericum perforatum, L. 
Other English names: Herb of St. John, 
Speckled John. 
Introduced. Perennial. Propagates by 
seeds and by runners from the base of the 
stem. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
Range: Throughout British America except 
in the far North, and in all the states 
except the most southern. 
Habitat: Fields, pastures, and waste places. 
A most pernicious weed, difficult of sup- 
pression. When young its juices are so 
acrid and blistering that no grazing animal 
will eat the plant; and when mature or 
dried in hay, stock reject it because of its 
woody toughness. (Fig. 199.) 
Stem ten to thirty inches tall, erect, 
slender, much branched, rather stiff, bear- 
‘eh 108. — Gamma ing along the sides two opposing ridges 
St. John’s-wort (Hyperi- Which make it two-edged. Leaves op- 
cum perforatum). X%. posite, oblong to elliptic, one-half inch to 
