292 ONAGRACEAE (EVENING PRIMROSE FAMILY) 
roots absorb a large amount of the food and moisture needed by 
better plants. 
Stem six to eighteen inches in height, round, red, branching, 
thickly set with sticky hairs to which small dead or dying insects 
are often seen adhering. Leaves opposite, long ovate, rough, entire, 
viscid, especially on midribs and veins, and tapering abruptly to 
short sticky-hairy petioles. Flowers on very short peduncles, 
not rising directly from the axils but from the side of the stem 
between the opposite leaf-stalks; they are less than a half-inch 
broad, bluish purple, with six very unequal petals, a tubular six- 
toothed, twelve-ribbed calyx, swollen at base on the upper side, 
and often ruddy-colored like the stem; stamens eleven or some- 
times twelve; style slender with two-lobed stigma; ovary un- 
equally two-celled, with a curved gland at its base. The capsule 
bursts lengthwise and the seeds protrude from its side while still 
immature and attached to one side of the placenta; they ripen 
while exposed to the open air and then drop off into the soil, where 
they are said to retain their vitality for several years. 
Means of control 
Prevent seed development by.closely cutting or uprooting the 
plants while in their first bloom. 
SEED-BOX 
Ludvigia alternifolia, L. 
Other English name: Rattle-box. 
Native. Perennial. Propagates by seeds. 
Time of bloom: June to September. 
Seed-time: July to October. 
Range: New Hampshire to Ontario and Michigan, southward to 
Florida, Kansas, and Texas. 
Habitat: Swamps, low meadows, banks of streams, and ditches. 
Roots fascicled, spindle-shaped, rather thick and fleshy. Stems 
two to three feet tall, erect, round, smooth, with a strong bark and 
many branches. Leaves alternate, entire, with marginal veins, 
smooth or nearly so, pointed at both ends, two to four inches in 
length, sessile or with very short petioles. Flowers solitary in 
